Black Velvet
by fatnakedkitten
Summary: Sequel to 'Could This Be Love'. Next Time: Scandals seem to be the theme at Mutant Manor this holiday season. Multiple pairings. P.S. HALTED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Thanks. -fnk
1. Chapter 1

Black Velvet

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men Evolution. If I did I wouldn't be writing a FanFic about it. Not to mention the show would totally suck and nobody would watch it.

A/N: If you haven't read my other story 'Could This Be Love?' you should probably go read it before getting into this one. This is a sequel to that one.

Okay, now that the formalities are over, let's get to it. As you know, if you kept up with CTBL, that Remy is now at the mansion, I seriously didn't think I was ever gonna get him there to be honest, Mystique made her announcement about Rogue's biomom, which she is obviously not happy about, and we haven't even seen Kurt or Laura's side of things, and Rogue totally blew Logan off when he tried to talk to her about it.

So, where does that leave us? You're about to find out.

4 months later…

"Cher, where ya runnin' off to at this time o' day?" Remy asked Rogue as she threw her book bag into the back seat of her car.

"Ah got finals tah go to, Swamp Rat, a real stalker would know that. Ah guess you're just a poser stalker." Rogue said mockingly.

She had gotten used to him going through her stuff; especially her day planner. It had annoyed her to no end when he started going through her things when she wasn't around. So much so that she absorbed him to find out what he had found out after a particularly heated fight. Much to her surprise he wasn't really going through her stuff, he just wanted her to think he was to get her riled up. After that it had become a game for the two. Remy would move something in Rogue's room while she was off doing whatever, usually at school, and when she got back she would check her room to find out what was misplaced. Most of the time she found what was missing, and confronted him about it in a 'you're not as smooth as you think you are' attitude. A few times she didn't figure it out though. She just assumed he forgot about their game, but when he asked her, she was reminded that he was a master thief, and he most likely for-real stole whatever it was instead of just misplacing it. A few of her things she never saw again.

"True, true, Cher, but a gentleman would respect a lady's privacy." Remy said and leaned against the car, with his arms and ankles crossed, in a way that made most women drool. Rogue, however, just rolled her eyes and fought the urge to vomit on him.

"Please, Swamp Rat, in order for that tah apply you would have to be a gentleman and Ah would have to be a lady. Since we are neither, your argument is null and void." Rogue said with a satisfied grin.

"Hmm… Excellent observation, mon Cher, but, as usual, you're wrong." Remy said in a holier than thou tone of voice.

"How?" Rogue asked simply with raised eyebrows.

"Ah don't know yet, let me think about it." Remy said with a shrug.

"Well, while you're thinking on it, Ah have tah get going." Rogue said and got into the driver side.

"Hang on, Cher, Ah'll tag along."Remy said and quickly slipped into the passenger side.

…Romy…

"So, Cher, you thought about what we been talkin' 'bout?" Remy asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Ah don't know." Rogue said, shrugging uncomfortably.

"Come on, Cher, we been over this." Remy said a little exasperated.

"Ah know, Ah'm just not ready to talk about it with the others, that's all." Rogue said quietly and Remy almost didn't hear.

"Yeah, but, Cher, if ya don't talk about these things, and ya keep 'em inside your head, it really messes with ya, and ya start goin' crazy, then the next thing ya know-" Remy started rambling before Rogue cut him off irritatedly.

"Yea, Ah got it, jeez. Ah guess ah can talk to 'em after all my finals are done and over with." Rogue said, nervousness evident in her voice.

"That's the spirit, Cher!" Remy said with fake enthusiasm.

"Whatever, Swamp Rat. Don't steal anything from the school." Rogue said as she parked her car and got out, slamming her door behind her.

"'Course not, Cher, you've changed me into a better man." Remy said as he rushed around the car to walk down the sidewalk with Rogue.

"Ah don't believe you. You stole my crap, you ain't no 'changed man', you ain't nothin' but a lyin' thief." Rogue said a little bit snidely.

"Keep talkin', Cher, and this conversation might go in a whole new direction." Remy said seductively.

"Oh, how ya wish it would go that way, don't ya?" Rogue said in an equally seductive tone.

"'Course Ah do, Cher, spendin' time wit' a belle feme such as yourself, what more could Remy ask for?" Remy said and smoothly slid an arm around Rogue's shoulders.

"Warmer weather." Rogue said, and to prove her point a pile of snow fell from some branches they had been walking under and landed on their feet.

"Yes, Remy would enjoy a little less of this white stuff that falls from the sky." Remy said looking scornfully at the pile of snow at their feet, then looked at Rogue, who had a matching look. "What say you, Cher?"

"Ah say we hustle it or Ah'll be late and it'll be all your fault." Rogue said and continued to the school.

A/N: Okay, ya'll, that's about all I got for this first one. I warned you it would probably suck, so don't whine about it.

Some details: Remy and Rogue have this sort of comradery relationship going on, and of course Remy wants it to be more than that, because everybody knows he's loved her since she put aside her pride to help him save his dad, but respects Rogue so he isn't really trying anything serious with her other than harmless flirting. Rogue and Kurt haven't really been talking since they returned because every time he brings up something deep she shuts him down in a second. Same goes for Kitty when she tries to get her bbf to open up to her. Since Logan asked Rogue to talk to him when she got back with Remy and she refused, they haven't said anymore to each other than what was necessary. Laura has just been in a daze of confusion because she doesn't know what's up with everyone and no one bothered to fill her in because she hasn't pried in anything. Jean and the Professor are just sitting back waiting patiently for the ice to break.

Okay, I think that's everything. I will try to get chapter two up in record time. Please R&R so I know how I did. Even if it's bad.

-fnk


	2. Chapter 2

Black Velvet

Disclaimer: See chapter one...

Chapter 2

A/N: Okay, only one review for the first one, but it is valued at the highest cost. Kudos to anyone who knows the artist that sings Black Velvet.

Same day, at the institute, in Kitty's room...

"Okay, muties, and human girl, we all, like, know why we're here right?" Kitty said, addressing the group sitting on her bedroom floor in a circle, (from Kitty's right to left) Lance, Amanda, Kurt, Laura, Scott, and Jean.

"Actually, I don't know why I'm here." Amanda said, as she raised her hand and looked around at the group.

"Yeah, neither do I, Jean just dragged me here, and said if I didn't come I would pay." Scott said in a bored tone of voice.

"I agree with the human girl, I don't know why I'm here. Jean said to come." Laura said pointing at Jean.

"Wow, you guys are pathetic. We're here because we all love and care for Rogue. We are her family." Kitty said and took Jean and Lance's hands.

"We're not gonna start praying, are we?" Lance asked, eying Kitty scepticaly.

"Shut up, Lance, we'll pray if I say we're going to pray. Now, as Rogue's unofficially adopted family, we have certain family duties to uphold, one of which is getting her to talk about Mr Logan being her biological father. However, before we can do that, we need to talk about our own feelings on the matter." Kitty said in a honey sweet voice, in the hopes that it would make everyone feel comfortable, but it just creeped them all out. Even Laura gave her a funny look.

"Kitty, please don't talk like that, you sound like a creeper." Jean said, taking her hand out of Kitty's.

"Wait a minute, hang on, big, scary Mr Logan with metal claws is Rogue's biological father?" Amanda asked, putting a hand up to Kitty, who was about to say something.

"According to Mystique and Irene, yeah, that's the 411 of the mutie asylum." Kitty said and slapped Amanda's hand away.

"Okay, I can see that." Amanda said with a shrug.

"Is that why there's been a lot of tension between those two?" Scott asked as realization dawned on him.

"That, and, not to mention, Gambit has been stuck to Rogue like a tick on a dog. I don't think he likes that very much." Kurt said, apparently not impressed himself.

"Yeah, it is kinda weird, considering she couldn't stand to be in the same room as him four months ago." Scott said, thinking back to when Remy had first come to the institute.

4 months ago...

"Leave me alone, Swamp Rat! You're so annoying!" Rogue yelled at Remy as she stormed out of the mansion.

"Cher, where ya goin'? Ah didn't mean nothin' by it! Why you so high strung, anyway?" Remy asked offensively as he followed Rogue out of the mansion.

"Ah don't know, Gambit, why don't you ask some of the other girls in this place why they don't like people reading their diary and see how they react!" Rogue said scathingly and turned to face Remy with her signature glare and hands on her hips. There wasn't much written in her diary, but she still felt her privacy was invaded by Remy's snooping.

"There wasn't nothin' but a bunch o' poorly written song lyrics in it, what's the big deal?" Remy said, intentionally trying to hurt Rogue's feelings.

"Ah hate you!" Rogue said, stomping her foot angrily.

"What is that? 'Ah hate you', what are you, ten years old?" Remy said mockingly.

"Ah wish Ah hadn't gone and got you from that house, you ain't nothin' but a pain in mah-"

"Well, ya know what, _Cher,_ Ah wish Ah was still there, too, there ain't nobody that wants meh here anyhow." Remy said with a look of hurt and disgust on his face.

"Well, what are ya waitin' for? Get outta here! If nobody wants ya here, why ya still hangin' around?" Rogue said backing away from him a few steps. Those who were gathered to watch the fight had begun to whisper to each other, none too silently either.

"Alright, Rogue, ya want me gone? Ah'm gone. Ah'll go be somebody else's problem." Remy said, a hint of remorse in his voice, and turned to go back in the mansion to get his stuff around.

"Don't let the door bite you on the way out!" Rogue called after him and turned and headed towards the gazebo.

Present...

"Yeah, I remember that fight, it wasn't even two weeks after he got here, was it?" Kitty asked when Scott finished retelling the story of Remy and Rogue's first big fight.

"He had only been here about ten days at that point, if I remember correctly." Kurt said, looking between Kitty and Scott.

"After he went inside, I followed him, and convinced him to stay." Jean said, also thinking back to that eventful day.

4 months ago... again...

"Leaving so soon?" Jean asked nonchalantly, as she stood in the doorway to Remy's room, where he was furiously gathering his clothes into his dufflebag.

"What's it to ya, Big Red?" Remy asked, startled and a little unnerved that she had snuck up on him. Although, she was a telepath, so it might not be that dificult for her.

"Nothing, not to _me_, anyway." Jean said, and walked into the room and started pulling drawers open to peer inside.

"What's that supposed tah mean?" Remy asked, eyeing her carefully.

"What does it mean to you?" Jean countered, taking one of Remy's muscle shirts out of a drawer to examine it.

"Do you always answer a question with a question?" Remy asked, getting uncomfortable with Jeans prowling through his things.

"Do you?" Jean asked, and pulled out a worn down book of poetry of some sort. "Had this long?" She asked, holding the book up for Remy to see.

"Could ya please _not_ go through mah things, thanks." Remy said as he rushed over to where Jean was leaning against the dresser, and snatched the book from her.

"What's wrong, you don't like people going through your stuff?" Jean asked.

"No, Ah don't, so if you would kindly respect my privacy, thank ya much." Remy said, gently tossing the book on his bed.

"That makes me wonder why you went through Rogue's stuff if you're so big on privacy." Jean said and sat in the chair beside the bed.

"Look, Red, Ah didn't mean nothin' by it, Ah just wanted to learn more 'bout her, that's all, she's the one who went postal." Remy said throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"Hmph, I wonder why." Jean said in mock thoughtfulness. "You know, you could've just asked her."

"Rahght, like she'd talk to me, get a clue, Queen." Remy said, annoyed at Jean's accusations.

"Have you even tried talking to her?" Jean asked, and opened the bedside table drawer to reveal a Bible. 'When did we start putting Bibles in the spare bedrooms?' Jean thought to herself, but quickly dismissed it for later ponderings, and closed the drawer. "I hear you're silent, am I to assume that's a 'no'?" She said when she didn't get an answer.

"Assume away, Jeanie." Remy said as he continued his rumaging.

"Okay, this is getting us nowhere, let's be straight on this, shall we? You care about Rogue somewhere in your twisted sense of reasoning, right?" Jean asked and stood up to face Remy, now completely serious.

"Ya don't gotta be so harsh about it, but yeah, Ah do care." Remy said crossing his arms defensively.

"So why are you making her cry?" Jean asked, crossing her arms as well.

"That girl don't cry." Remy said, as if the thought of it were laughable.

"Maybe not, but you do understand her. More so than the rest of us, anyway." Jean said. "And she could use someone like you around."

"What you mean 'someone like me'?" Remy asked curiously.

"Someone with a dangerous power that is difficult to control, and someone who, as you said, has been down the same roads." Jean said, sympathetically.

"Wait, how do you about that?" Remy asked suspiciously, refering to what he told Rogue back on the Bayous.

"That doesn't matter, just give it a few weeks, and if you still want to go, I won't stop you. Rogue's head is a jumbled mess right now, and I think her having someone here who knows what that's like, other than Logan, will be good for her. Not to mention you could work with her on her people skills. What do you say?" Jean said and held her hand out to Remy.

"Why can't you talk to her? You have a, what was it, 'dangerous power that's dificult to control'." Remy asked mockingly.

"Except I have a loving and supportive family, and I'm way more popular and, most importantly, I can have skin to skin contact with another human being. We're at different ends of the spectrum. Besides we're not exactly BFF's." Jean said with a 'duh' look on her face.

"Alrahght, Red, Ah'll give it a try, but Ah ain't promisin' nothin'." Remy said and shook her hand.

"That's all I ask, just don't read her diary, she gets upset over stuff like that. She's down by the gazebo if you want to go talk to her." Jean said and left the room.

Present... again...

"You went through his stuff?" Scott asked, unbelievably.

"It was the only way to prove my point." Jean said dismissively.

"Okay, freaks and geeks, Rogue is due home any time now, so we will, like, continue this on Thursday, okay?" Kitty said, looking around to make sure everyone agreed. "Okay, like, see everyone back here day after tomorrow." Kitty said and everyone got up and left to go do their own thing.

A/N: Okay, Lance and Laura didn't really get a voice this chapter but their moment will come. Thanks to everyone who is following, has reviewed or favorited this story. Shout out to Wolf skater for being my muse. She has wicked stories you should so read them.

Walking Dead season premier last night was so awesome, even though I haven't seen the last 5 or 6 episodes of season 2, but whatever. Supernatural on Wednesday! So watching it!

-fnk


	3. Chapter 3

Black Velvet

Disclaimer: See chapter one...

Chapter 3

A/N: Okay, I know Kitty has been calling the other students stuff like 'muties' and 'freaks' and it's just her way of mocking the humans who call them that. And it's a running joke around the mansion to see who can come up with the best mutant insults, especially with the new recruits.

Sorry for the long wait, but as I said I had terrible writers block. After watching this week's episode of Supernatural, my inspiration was renewed. Don't ask why, because I have no answer for you. Thanks for your patience, reviews, and favorites, they are much appreciated.

In answer to JasmineBella's review, I just got bored with all the stories about Remy showing up at the institute and everyone's all like OME Remy's here, Rogue doesn't like it, blah blah blah, not dogging on anyone cuz there's some really good one's out there, I just wanted to mix it up a little.

Thanks go to Wolf skater, ImaniSechelles and tx peppa for being my top reviewers for this story, and Wolf skater and ImaniSechelles for Could This Be Love?.

Special thanks to tx peppa for your faith in me. T~T

At the Institute...

"Okay, Cher, we here, tahme ta face thah music." Remy said when Rogue parked the car in the garage.

"Ah don't think so. Nice trah, Swamp Rat, Ah'm outta here." Rogue said as she grabbed her bag, got out of the car and slammed the door in Remy's face.

"But, Cher, ya promised!" Remy exclaimed as he got out and followed Rogue out of the garage.

"Ah said no such thing! Ya crazy if ya think Ah'm talking tah Logan about something lahke that. Hah! Fat chance, Swampy." Rogue said and gave a maniacal laugh. She was in a considerably better mood since she aced both of her final exams for the day without much effort.

"Now, Roguie, you know that ain't fair tah go back on yo word like that." Remy said chastising her.

"Yeah, whatever, Ah got some reading to catch up on, and not the academic kind, either." Rogue said as she headed for the front door. She was startled as Laura dropped in front of her from seemingly nowhere. "Laura! Where did you come from?"

"Oh, hello little Wolvie clone." Remy said when he caught up to Rogue and waved at the small girl.

"Quiet, you hack, I'm here to speak to Rogue and that's it, so keep your mouth shut." Laura said threateningly to Remy before turning to Rogue.

"What do ya want? Ah got stuff tah do." Rogue asked, maybe a little too rudely if you asked Remy. Not many people did though.

"I would like to speak with you, in private, if it is at all possible." Laura said. She had tried to talk to Rogue when they first got back to the mansion four months ago, but it hadn't gone as well as she hoped.

~shimmer into flashback mode~

Rogue had just dismissed Logan's feeble attempt to talk to her and retreated to her bedroom where she collapsed, face down, on her bed, head buzzing too much to even think about a shower, much less sleep, when a firm knock came to her door.

"Logan, Ah said later!" She huffed as she stood, walked to the door, and yanked it open, only to find his clone standing there instead. "Oh, sorry, Ah thought you were Logan."

"So I heard. May we speak in a gossiping manner? I believe that is the phrase." Laura said, a little uncertain.

"Ah guess so, since yer already here." Rogue said and walked back to her bed and plopped down, leaving the door open for the other girl to enter."What ya want?" she asked when Laura walked in and stood in the middle of the room, waiting for an invitation to sit.

"To talk to you." Laura said simply, looking around curiously at the posters on her wall.

"You said that. What do you want to talk about?" Rogue said, getting a little impatient.

"Logan being your biological father, of course." Laura said and walked over to Rogue's bookshelf to peruse through her collections of supernatural books about witches, vampires, werewolves, etc.

"You're not allowed to say that, we don't know for sure if that's even the case." Rogue said offensively. She wasn't sure why, but Laura assuming such things annoyed her a bit.

"Why? Does it make you uncomfortable? My questioning such an obvious sore subject for you." Laura said, being bluntly honest. It irked Rogue, again, not that she knew why.

"Ya know yer really startin' tah annoy meh, so stop playin' games and get to the point." Rogue said as she stood and crossed her arms defensively.

"As you wish. I just wanted to understand your thoughts about this whole ordeal, as I myself do not have any personal experience with such a situation. I am very curious." Laura said, and went to stand in front of Rogue, with a look of intrigue on her face.

"It ain't none o' yah business what Ah'm feelin', so why don't you take your curiosity and vamoose before I get mad. Because frankly speakin', Ah don't know you well enough to tell you anything. You don't know me, you don't anythin' about me, so why don't you, and everyone else, just leave me alone! Mah head's been screwed with enough in the last year, Ah need some tahme tah mahself, if ya'll don't mind, thank you very much." Rogue said huffily, and with that she walked to the door, held it open, and motioned for Laura to leave. After a brief staring contest between the two girls, Laura walked out and the door slammed after her.

(A/N: This little scene is kind of a prequel to my X-Ray fic.)

"Whoa, what happened in there?" Laura turned to see Ray walking down the hall towards her.

"The Rogue is not in a pleasant mood. I believe I may have made it worse." Laura said, casting a forlorn look at the door behind her as Ray came to a stop beside her.

"Everyone and everything makes situations worse when it comes to that girl. Don't take it personally." Ray said, frowning at the door as well.

"Very well." Laura said with a shrug.

"Come on, a Danger Room session will do you good." Ray said and continued walking down the hall with Laura following him.

~shimmer out of flashback mode~

"Fahne, but make it quick, Ah just bought a new mystery book that is calling to meh from mah room. Ah can hear it." Rogue said as she continued into the mansion and up the stairs and to her bedroom, Laura and Remy following silently behind her. Once in her room, Rogue dropped her bag by the door and fell back onto her bed waiting for Laura to start the conversation. Remy settled himself at her desk and started a game of Solitaire. Laura didn't understand why he was always so entertained by the mindless sorting of cards game, so she ignored him.

"I still want to talk to you about your potential biological link to Logan." Laura said hesitantly after a few minutes, half expecting Rogue to blow up on her again, half expecting her to blow her off like she had done to most everyone else.

"Of course you do, why wouldn't you?" Rogue asked rhetorically, with a roll of her eyes.

"Your friends are worried about you." Laura said, testing Rogue's mood.

"People are always worried about meh. Nothin' new on that front, next." Rogue said in a bored tone of voice.

"I'll just cut to the point then. Why does the thought of Logan being your father frighten you so?" Laura asked bluntly, as always, causing Remy to look up from his game to watch Rogue's reaction.

"It doesn't, you nit wit, it just…" Rogue trailed off, not sure how to help her understand what Remy just automatically knew from similar experiences. "It isn't fair. If Mystique did tell the truth four months ago, which Ah'm startin' ta believe more and more every day that she did, God help us all, then why wait till now? Why didn't she tell me when Ah found out she was mah adopted mama, why wait?" Rogue asked in confusion.

"Maybe, in her own strange and twisted way, she was trying to protect you until she thought you were ready to know about it." Laura said consolingly. She supposed the first time she tried to talk to her it was just simply way too early, and hadn't had time to process everything yet.

"Yeah, right, that old bag doesn't give a rat's tooth about meh, the only thing she cares about is power and how she can get it." Rogue said with a little more snark than she meant.

"Maybe deep, deep, deep, way deep down she really does care, you just haven't dug far enough. I'm sure she wasn't always so power hungry, and from what I hear, she has mellowed out a bit since the whole Apocalypse thing has blown over." Laura said with a shrug.

"You say that name again, and you'll be waking up in the med bay, got it?" Rogue said sitting up straight at the mention of Apocalypse.

"Forgive my stupidity." Laura said apologetically.

Rogue gave her an odd look and said "Whatever, just don't say that name." Laura nodded once and continued.

"If it doesn't frighten you, but merely confuses you, why haven't you spoken to Logan or the Professor about your feelings and concerns?" She asked curiously.

"Why would Ah do that when Remy here is such a good listener?"Rogue said and held a hand out to Remy, who smiled at her in return.

"Good point, but if you were Logan's daughter, biological daughter, than that would make us something like sisters, wouldn't it?" Laura asked eagerly. (A/N: An excellent point brought up by Wolf skater in the early chapter chats of Could This Be Love?)

"Ah don't know, Ah guess so, maybe. Why?" Rogue asked suspiciously, her mind instantly going to a Kitty scheme.

"I think it would be nice to have a sister. Jean talks about her sister often enough I have grown fond of the idea of a sister of my own." Laura said sentimentally.

"That little sneak planted those thoughts in your head it's called suggestive reasoning or something like that. You have to watch her or she'll make you think you live in a ginger bread house or something crazy like that. Ah wouldn't put it passed her to something that vindictive." Rogue said intuitively.

"Yes, I shall watch what I hear from her from here on out." Laura said seriously.

"Sure, now, if that's all ya wanted from meh, go away, Ah still have a book to read." Rogue said as she got up to escort Laura out and shut the door without waiting for a reply.

"So, Cher, we be alone, in yo bed chambers, at last." Remy said seductively, as he left his cards forgotten on the table.

"Yup, Swamp Rat, alone at last." Rogue said with a mischievous grin and locked the door.

A/N: I totally had to stop it there, I'm sorry. 1, it's almost 4:30 in the morning. 2, I want to see the reactions I get.

On another note, I was right. Writing another fanfiction did get me out of my writer's block. I am so genius. But I'm sorry to say I didn't get it completely typed up before my inspiration struck for this one to be continued and chapter finished. Bummer. No matter. Please R&R, thank ya much.

Till next time,

-fnk


	4. Chapter 4

Black Velvet

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: N/A…

Previously…

"_Yes, I shall watch what I hear from her from here on out." Laura said seriously._

"_Sure, now, if that's all ya wanted from meh, go away, Ah still have a book to read." Rogue said as she got up to escort Laura out and shut the door without waiting for a reply._

"_So, Cher, we be alone, in yo bed chambers, at last." Remy said seductively, as he left his cards forgotten on the table. _

"_Yup, Swamp Rat, alone at last." Rogue said with a mischievous grin and locked the door._

Now…

Remy ran his hands over Rogue's muscled thighs as she wrapped her arms around his neck as he laid the two of them on the bed. He kissed down her neck as she tangled her fingers in his hair and locked her legs around his waist. He was about to continue his feather light kisses back up her neck when he heard a knock at the door.

"Um, Gambit, are you, like, gonna sleep in Rogue's room all day, or what?" Remy heard a girly voice say through the fog in his head. He couldn't place who it belonged to, so he shook his head and continued his work.

"Hello? Gambit, like, totally wake up, Mr. Logan is gonna catch you in here, and you know it, like, won't be pretty." Rogue said from beneath him, only it was with a Valley girl accent that only one person could have beheld. He gave her a confused look, and the next thing he knew he fell on the floor on his back on the wind was knocked out of him. Once he caught his breath he looked around at his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that it was in the middle of the day, not midnight. He was, however, still in Rogue's room, with an annoyed Kitty Pryde standing over him with her arms crossed.

"What happened, Petite Chat?" Remy asked, thoroughly confused.

"You fell asleep in Rogue's room. Again." Kitty said indignantly, obviously this had happened more than once.

"Where be da feme?" Remy asked, looking around the room to see that Rogue was, in fact, missing from where he had last seen her on her bed talking to Laura.

"I think she's down by the gazebo with Laura. Maybe Kurt. Maybe both. You should go see." Kitty said and left the room.

"Cherie…" Remy said whispery to himself as he looked out the window towards where the gazebo was down by the water.

Down by the gazebo…

Remy was walking along the all too familiar stone paved pathway that led to the Rogue's favorite spot to sit and think when he stopped adruptly at the sound of people talking. He couldn't understand what they were saying, so he moved closer until he could see and hear them. Like Kitty had said, Rogue, Laura, and Kurt were inside the gazebo having a heated discussion.

"Rogue, you are so… so…" Kurt said, stammering to find the right word.

"Pigheaded." Laura supplied.

"Yes, thank you, pigheaded. You now have answers to some of your questions. Like who your parents are, where you come from, and how you got to where you are." Kurt said, trying to make his sister see reason.

"Ah didn't want 'em. Not like that. It would have been better if the Professor had told me." Rogue said, leaning against the railing with her arms crossed and her gaze focused on the ground. Remy heard a hint of remorse in her voice that took him back to four months ago, after Jean had talked him out of leaving.

Flashback…

Remy was walking down the stoned paved pathway for the first time, getting directions from one of the younger students, heading toward the gazebo, where Jean had said Rogue would be. He rounded the corner and stopped short when he saw Rogue pacing the small space, kicking at the ground and talking out loud to herself.

"Stupid Swamp Rat, who does he think he is, looking at my crap like that? Is he crazy? Must be, none of the others go prowling through my stuff, not even Kitty, and we shared a room together! Not to mention he had the audacity to say my lyrics sucked, what a jerk!" Rogue said and kicked at the railing on the far end, by the water, and leaned on it, letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Actually, Chere, that's not what Ah meant." Remy said as he walked up behind her, deciding this was a good time to make his presence known.

"What do you want? Haven't you tormented meh enough? You're supposed to be leavin', Ah figured you'd be gone by now, as much in a hurry you were to get packed. What are you still doing here?" Rogue asked accusingly, turning her trademark glare on him.

"Well, Chere, Ah was, but a little birdie convinced me to give it another go." Remy said as he casually leaned on the railing on the opposite end of Rogue.

"Jean? That sneaky little…" Rogue said and glared in the direction of the mansion.

"_You're welcome." Jean said to her telepathically. _

"_Stay outta mah business, Quean Bee! And get outta mah head!" Rogue thought irritably._

"_You'll see the light." Jean said and gave Rogue and Remy their privacy. _

"You need to not hang out with that girl, she's a bad influence." Rogue said seriously, looking back at Remy with a glare.

"Right, a prim and proper school girl is a bad influence on me, Gambit, Remy LeBeau, King of Thieves, and Ex-Acolyte. Yes, Ah'm sure she is." Remy said sarcastically, with a roll of his eyes.

"Jean Grey is anything but innocent, you'll see soon enough. Again, what do you want? If yer just here to mess with mah head, go away, Ah prefer to be alone." Rogue said and turned her back on him.

"Ah came here to talk to you, but if you're just going to give me attitude, I'll go."Remy said and stood up straight, waiting for an answer.

"See ya later." Rogue said without turning around.

"Ya know what, Rogue, you are a selfish, spoiled, rude, and obnoxious little brat. Ya don't care about anyone but yerself, and Ah can't, for the life of me, figure out how anyone deals with you. How do they do it?" Remy asked honestly, his frustration getting the best of him.

"This is who Ah am, if ya don't like what ya see, leave me alone." Rogue said as she whirled around to face him again, obviously angry once again.

"No, Chere, it ain't about what others think or like when they look at you, it's about what you see. You don't like what you see." Remy said giving her a knowing look.

"Shut up, you don't know what you're talking about." Rogue said crossing her arms defensively.

"Ah think ah know you better than you know yourself." Remy said, taking a few hesitant steps towards her.

"That's a lie, Ah know who Ah am." Rogue said, balling up her fists.

"Rogue, you've been trying so hard to be what everyone else wants you to be, you don't even know who you really are anymore, who you were before your powers defined you. You lost it." Remy said sympathetically.

"You lost it too!" Rogue said throwing her arms down at her side. Remy saw some emotion in her eyes that he couldn't identify. "Ah saw it. Before Jean Luc took you in, you were different." Rogue said quietly, and as soon as it had come, what Remy had seen was gone. They were both quiet for a few minutes, in a somewhat tensely understanding silence.

"Ah'm gonna stick around for a little while, if that's okay wit' you." Remy said, not looking at her.

"Sure, if ya want. Ah don't care what you do." Rogue said with a shrug, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Sure ya don't." Remy said, giving her one of his famous smirks. "I lied to ya, Chere." He said after a minute, looking slightly apologetic, shifting a bit.

"Big shocker there." Rogue said in mock surprise without turning around.

"I thought your song lyrics weren't bad. Pretty good, actually, if not a little weird." Remy said with a slight draw of his brows.

"Thank you." Rogue said in a dignified tone after a few minutes. Then, without saying anything, she turned around and left Remy alone to head back for the Institute.

…}Back to Present{…

Remy shook his head, ridding his mind of the memory, straightened his jacket, and walked confidently up to the three adopted/possibly genetic siblings with a sly grin on his lips.

"Bonjour, ladies," Remy said as he walked briskly up the few steps of the gazebo, then turned to Kurt,"and their little frère."

"What do you want, Swamp Rat?" Rogue asked, giving him a bored.

"You two ladies left poor little moi all alone." Remy said, trying his best to look hurt through his smile.

"You'll get over it. Why were you spying?" Rogue asked, a suspicious glint in her eye.

"Not spying, mon Chere, just hanging around." Remy said, leaning next to Rogue on the railing, not missing the mean glare he got from Kurt as he did so. "And, no, it would not have been better for the Prof to tell you, because then you would be mad she didn't tell you herself. Then who wins? Nobody, you see how these things work?" Remy asked, not noticing the amused look on Rogue's face. "Why are you smiling?" Remy asked when he did notice.

"Because in this case you won. Ah'd already decided to smooth things over with Logan a few months ago on my own." Rogue said with a shrug.

"You didn't say anything before, because?" Kurt asked, a little annoyed.

"Because it's so much fun watching you all squirm." Rogue said as she walked out of the gazebo. "Besides, how else am I gonna be entertained?"

"That's a little bit twisted, Chere, even for you." Remy said as the three of them followed after her.

"Yeah, well, you just can't pick the crazies these days, can you? It's how Ah was raised." Rogue said with a gleeful smile.

"Schwester, are you seriously gonna sit down with Logan and talk like civilized people?" Kurt said, astonishment evident in his voice.

"Course not, first Ah'm gonna have the Prof go through what Ah got from Mystique and make sure it all adds up, then we'll sit down and talk like civilized people. Hopefully." Rogue said the last word as an afterthought. No one could predict how Logan would react in any given situation, but she was determined to have as little shouting as possible, in the holiday spirit.

A/N: Okay, peeps, that's about as good as it's gonna get. This thing was written over a period of about two weeks. Anyway, I had started to write chapter four, but it didn't flow with number three so I had to write a completely different one as I was too far into it to start over, so I just wrote a whole new one. The next one will be up tomorrow. Hope you guys liked, please review and tell me how it went, because I didn't go back and read it, so I'm not sure. The next one will be better, since I now have to write one chapter a day, it's the 5th of Dec., in order for these things to be ready to go up on time so you guys don't have to flame me.

Also, Rogue is flip flopping between emotions because, like I said, this was written sporadically in the span of two weeks, but do not despair, I'll figure a way to explain that in the story. It was an error by the author that the characters will fix. Something like that. Okay, I'm off to write the next one. TTFN!

-fnk


	5. Chapter 5

Black Velvet Chapter 5

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: Not much to say. I was gonna have this one be longer but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Besides, my brother read CTBL, BV, my X-Ray fic, and this chapter, before it was finished, and said that he hated my stories because the chapters always end on cliffhangers, so he had to wait till the next chapter to find out what happened, and all but ordered me to not leave this one on as a cliffhanger. So, being the generous and sweet and kind sister that I am, I'm making it a cliffy. :)

On with the story!

Inside the mansion, on their way to the Professor's office…

"Okay, I think we should get Logan to come with us, it'll save us having to track him down later, and he'll be able to hear firstly from the Professor whatever we find out. What do you think?" Kurt asked the other three mutants walking with him to the Professors office.

"Whatever you want." Rogue said with a wave of her hand in approval.

"His room is just down the hall, we should check there first." Laura said pointing down the hall to one of the rooms designated for, apparently, Logan, as they had to pass through the Instructors wing to get to the Professors study/office, and took the lead, with Rogue, Remy, and Kurt following closely behind her.

Once they reached Logan's room they all huddled at the door, preparing to make their case and fend off the anger thrown their way at his being interrupted from whatever he was doing. Unsuspectingly, Laura opened the door quickly to reveal to the young mutants a scene forever scarred in their minds. They saw plain and clear Logan and a certain dark skinned, white haired beauty on the bed wrapped in a tangled mess of sheets and sweaty limbs. Apparently the two had assumed they were the only ones left in the mansion, as all other students were either out shopping, or on a date, i.e. Jean and Scott, and both knew the Professor and Mr. McCoy were off at a coffee shop meeting with some friends from way back when, and the remaining four had been out in the gazebo, so one really couldn't blame them for thinking they were alone.

"Oh mah gawd!" Rogue exclaimed as she reached around Laura and slammed the door shut. The four of them just stared at the door in shock for a few minutes before Rogue and Laura turned to each other, mouths agape, and shuddered at the same time. "Okay, everyone, to mah room." Rogue said and they all turned and rushed away from the scene of the crime. Once in Rogue's room, they all found a place to sit, but didn't say anything for a few minutes.

"Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but was that Logan?" Kurt asked uncertainly, breaking the silence.

"Yup." Rogue answered in a toneless voice.

"With Storm?" Kurt asked, hoping he had just been imagining what he'd seen.

"That's what Ah saw, how 'bout ya'll?" Rogue asked, not looking at anything but the wall behind her desk, still in shock, like the rest.

"Ah believe mah eyes do not deceive me, Chere, Ah saw what you saw." Remy said, shifting in his seat at the desk uncomfortably.

"I believe we have just witnessed what Kitty would call a scandal, am I correct?" Laura asked for clarification.

"Okay, ya'll, snap out of it, this is serious, we have a scandal on our hands. Remy, wake up!" Rogue said, recovering from her shock and demanding order among the three others.

"Chere, you do know that they are both consenting adults, and really aren't doing nothin' wrong, right?" Remy asked, quickly catching onto her train of thought immediately.

"Don't mattah, Swamp Rat! Say Logan really is my old man, and he just up and marries Storm, do ya got any idea what that would mean?" Rogue asked as if the answer should be obvious.

"She would be your Step-Mama?" Remy guessed.

"No! Well, yes, but that ain't what Ah mean! Ah would be related to Evan! While that in and of itself ain't a problem, he's like the American version of Kurt! Ah already got one of him to deal with, Ah really don't need two!" Rogue said as she stood up and pointed an accusing finger at her brother.

"I think it's a good idea." Laura said sternly. Rogue just shot her a "WTF?" look before she elaborated on her train of thought. "Storm is a strong and independent woman with impressive mutant abilities, she can hold her own in any situation, domestic or combative, has natural mother instincts that will prove useful should the two decide to procreate, and is quite attractive. She would make a fine mate for our father." Laura said with a firm nod at the end.

"Whoa, slow down, while Ah agree with you on most o' that stuff, you still ain't allowed to call him mah fathah till Ah say so, got it?" Rogue said, in a stern tone of voice accompanied by a glare.

"What do we tell the others?" Kurt asked curiously.

"Nothing. We tell no one of the things we have witnessed today. Does everybody understand?" Laura said.

"Yes, that is a good idea, and we'll leave it at that." Laura said, they all agreed and went their separate to, obviously, tell someone they were sure wouldn't tell. As these things go, by the next day, the entire mansion knew about the scandal.

A/N: Okay, it is 6:30, 12/10, only three days till it's time to put this thing up, which means I will be working on this pretty much non-stop for the next couple days. 'Tis the life of a procrastinator. Well, by the time you read this it will be the 14th, but no matter. So much for having all that time to write. Truth be told, I got distracted with Young Justice. Much cooler than I thought it would be. So if the characters are a little ooc I blame them.

-fnk


	6. Chapter 6

Black Velvet Chapter 6

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

Last chapter, a short one, we had the four little X-kids walk in on Loro. Now, some of you may cringe at that, but I did my research, and, in an altered time stream of the 90's animated series, "One Man's Worth, parts 1&2", Logan and Storm were married, in the comics as well, so it isn't like it would never happen. Plus, they had awesome chemistry in the normal time line, and when I was a kid I always assumed they were married. This idea didn't just come out of nowhere.

I, fatnakedkitten, have made the executive decision that I'm going to get the whole Rogue/Logan stuff out of the way so we can get to the real drama, and to wrap up the events of CTBL, don't know if it will be this chapter or next, but it shall happen. Don't worry, AndromedaAtomica, Rogue will warm up to Laura's odd self throughout the story. Up until now, Rogue has taken to ignoring her, threatened by her sudden interest in what's going on with her life.

Today's date in the story for this chapter is Wednesday December 12.

That is all for now, and since I am in the mood for Kurmanda drama, here you guys go…

After the four split…

"Amanda!" Kurt called out when he 'ported into Amanda's bedroom at her house.

"Kurt, what are you doing here!?" Amanda called from the bathroom down the hall where she was fixing her hair for their lunch date in an hour.

"Don't worry, I made sure your parents weren't home before 'porting in here. I have to tell you something that you can't tell anyone, not even Rogue. Well, Rogue already knows, she was there, but that's not the point!" Kurt said as he made his way down the hall to the bathroom where Amanda was brushing out her long, wet hair, as she had apparently just showered.

"Okay, who am I gonna tell? All my friends are mutants." Amanda said as if it were obvious.

"No one, you can tell no one, especially mutants." Kurt said in a scheming manner.

"Okay, what's the big secret that I can't tell anyone about?" Amanda asked nonchalantly as she continued brushing through her tangled hair. (A/N: Storm's hair in WATXM is pretty epic. Just saying.)

"Okay, so me and Laura finally convinced Rogue to do something productive with what went on down south, right? So we all, me, Rogue, Laura and that pervy Gambit, were all on our way to the Prof's office, and we decided to take Wolverine along with us, right? So Laura just bursts into his room, without knocking mind you, and there it is, right in front of us, Storm and Wolverine… um…" Kurt said, stammering at the end as a blush crept up under his fur.

"Going at it?" Amanda supplied bluntly as she walked back to her room to put her boots on.

"Well, if you want to be so straight forward with it, then yes. What do we do?" Kurt asked in a panicked voice.

"What, about Storm and Wolverine? They're both adults, Kurt, what are you gonna do?" Amanda asked, sitting on her bed and giving Kurt her full attention.

"But, Amanda! It's so gross!" Kurt complained with a shudder.

"Humans think us being together is gross, but do you think I give them the time of day? I didn't think so. Besides, who would you rather see him with, Storm or your mother?" Amanda asked with raised eyebrows. Kurt took a moment to think on that one.

"Yeah, I guess I see your point." Kurt said with a shudder at the thought of Mystique doing anything like what he saw with anyone. "Are you going somewhere?" Kurt asked when he looked across the room and saw that all of her stuff was obviously being packed up, some of it in boxes, some in suitcases, and some still waiting to be packed.

"My parents are making me move all the way to Washington with them to stay with some relatives." Amanda said sadly.

"Washington? But that's on the other side of the country! You were going to come to the Institute on Christmas, everyone is so excited, you can't leave it isn't fair." Kurt said just as sadly.

"I know, I tried to tell my parents, but they said I had no business even being over there. They said the Institute was filled with nothing but uncontrollable monsters. I was hoping that if they got to meet you again, after so long, that they would be more open minded, but they refused to listen to me when I tried to talk to them." Amanda said, her lip quivering slightly as her voice broke at that last sentence. Kurt felt his heart clench when Amanda looked at him with sad, teary eyes.

"It's okay, Amanda, we'll figure something out. I won't let them take you away from me, I promise." Kurt said reassuringly as he sat down on the bed next to her, wrapped his arms around her waist and held her in a tight, protective embrace, which she immediately leaned into. "When do you leave?" Kurt asked curiously.

"Friday after my last midterm. Dad said that moving wouldn't be as bad as I thought it would be since I only have one semester left before graduation, and that I needed to concentrate on my studies, rather than "boys and monsters", as he puts it." Amanda said scornfully with a roll of her eyes at her parents' bigotry.

"Well, we'll just have to make the best of the time we still have together." Kurt said and stood up, pulling Amanda up with him. "Now, finish getting ready, I'll wait in the hall, and we can go to the park, it just snowed earlier, we can make snow angels." He said and kissed her cheek before leaving her to finish beautifying herself, even though he had told her she was pretty without all the makeup and such, but she wouldn't hear him.

A/N: Okay, peeps, I have to stop it there. Another short one, I know, but I reread it and I really can't think of anything to follow it up with. This chapter and the next one are dedicated to 3v3ry1luvsm3.

I got the inspiration for this one from my favorite 90's soap Boy Meets World. Please review this one and give me your thoughts.

-fnk


	7. Chapter 7

Black Velvet Chapter 7

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: Okay, not many reviews for these last few chapters. Please review my fellow fictioners. This is pathetic. Even criticism would be better than nothing. I couldn't help but get some drama going with Lancitty.

In the mall with Lance and Kitty…

"Lance? You're not seriously going to put that dinky little Christmas tree in your house, are you?" Kitty asked Lance, an unimpressed look on her face and hands on her hips.

"Kitty, are seriously going to spend all your allowance money on decorations for that dumpy house that I live in?" Lance asked matching her expression.

"Actually, I'm not spending my allowance money. The Professor, like, totally said I could use the school credit card to pay for all this. He said he's a sucker for charity cases. Well, not in so many words, he just said not to go overboard." Kitty said and went back to choosing the biggest tree she could find.

"Excuse me, Pryde, but Pietro Maximoff is not a charity case. Get it through your bubble gum head, Barbie." Pietro said in annoyance. He already wasn't happy about going shopping with Lance's squeeze of the week, but now he was getting annoyed at their constant bickering over every little thing.

"Pietro, why don't you take your rude comments and shove 'em up your-" Kitty started to yell before Lance cut her off, not wanting a fight between the two in the middle of the mall.

"Whoa, Kitty, calm down, no need to shout." Lance said as he stepped between the two with his hands raised in a calming manner.

"Well, tell your little butt buddy to get his attitude in check before someone does it for him." Kitty said and crossed her arms with a disgusted look on her face aimed at Pietro.

"I'm not the one running around a mall ogling everything that might look like a stupid Christmas decoration. I mean, seriously, you're Jewish, and you're celebrating Christmas?" Pietro said rolling his eyes at the iron of it all.

"Okay, you two, enough with the insults, we're in public for crying out loud. Pietro, stop bashing Kitty for trying to do something nice for us. Kitty, where did you learn that foul mouthed language?" Wanda asked, interjecting before things got out of hand.

"Ray and Bobby say stuff like that to each other all the time, I guess it just, like, rubbed off on me, or something." Kitty said with a shrug.

"Well, you're starting to sound like Rogue, so tone it down a bit, would you?" Wanda asked, feeling a headache coming on.

"Only if _he_ leaves me alone." Kitty said glaring at Pietro over Lance's shoulder.

"Only if I can get away from little Miss Priss." Pietro said and stuck his tongue out at Kitty, who took great offense to the childish act.

"Fine, I'll take these boys home, along with what you've already paid for, and come get you two when you're ready." Wanda said, slapping Pietro for his rudeness.

"Sounds good to me, here take my jeep, don't let Toad drive. Where is Toad? And Blob?" Lance asked when he looked around and didn't find the other two boys anywhere.

"We'll find them, let's go Pietro." Wanda said as she and Pietro pushed the two carts full of an assortment of Christmas decorations to go find their fellow Brotherhood members, who were in a movie theatre on the other side of the mall watching a movie about some monster that eats kids that lie to their parents. (me: shrug)

"Finally, why is Pietro, like, being such a jerk?" Kitty asked Lance once the siblings were out of hearing range.

"He's in strong like with Tabby. He refused to say the word 'love', and slapped anyone who said it. He said that Tabby was a 'unique creature unlike any other'. Something like that anyway. He just doesn't know how to tell her. It's kind of weird hearing him talk about her. It's like they've been married for years, as much as he knows about her. He's going all Twilight on the poor psycho." Lance said, rolling his eyes as they moved over to the next store that had a large, porcelain village displayed in the front window.

"Twilight?" Kitty asked, not getting the reference.

"Stalking her, going into her room while she's sleeping, almost like Gambit and Rogue, but more secretive. He has a shrine dedicated to her in his closet. If he turns out to be a serial killer, I won't be able to say I didn't see it coming." Lance said with a heavy sigh.

"You mean that jerk off that sold us all out to Magneto and his friend that made the Sentinels and tried to kill us and inevitably outed us all as mutants, an action that has thus far made our lives miserable actually has enough of a heart to crush on someone?" Kitty asked, surprised at what had just reached her ears.

"If you wanna be that elaborate about it, then yeah, there you go." Lance said after he took a minute to process what she said.

"That's news to me." Kitty said with a scoff. "On another note, Bobby and Jubilee are going out to the movies tonight, and she wanted to know if we wanted to double with them." Kitty said as she walked into the store they had stopped outside of, expecting him to reject the offer immediately.

"Sure, why not." Lance said offhandedly. "By the way, Kitty, I heard the fuzz balls human girl is moving cross country." He said, quickly changing the subject. Kitty, however, didn't seem to notice, and launched headlong into the new topic.

"Oh my gosh, she left yesterday, Lance, it was so sad! I, like, can't believe you actually care, you are such a kind and considerate person when you want to be." Kitty said affectionately, and wrapped her arms around Lance's neck, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, before pulling away and continuing to browse the store they were in.

"Speaking of human girl, have you noticed anything weird about Rogue lately?" Lance asked as he inspected a rather creepy looking marionette.

"Now that you mention it, I totally have. It's like she wants to tell me something, but she can't. Do you think she wants to confess her feelings for Gambit?" Kitty asked, a hopeful gleam in her eye as she turned to lance with puppy dog eyes.

"Yeah, probably not, Kitty, but keep dreaming." Lance said, rolling his eyes at Kitty's naivety.

"Anyway, Amanda said her parents didn't want her being influenced by the mutant menace that Bayville has taken to housing. Kurt said they left because they found out that Amanda was dating Kurt behind her parents' backs after they said she was forbidden to see him. Kurt has turned her into quite the little rebel, in her own way." Kitty said getting bored and moving on to another of the little mini stores inside the mall.

"That's cool. Do you think Logan really is Rogue's biological father? I mean, I don't actually care, and I wouldn't put it past Mystique to pull some crap like that, but Rogue's still my friend, and it would hurt her if she found out that this was just another one of her games." Lance said forlornly.

"Hey, Lance, did you and Rogue have anything going on between the two of you? You know, like, when she was still living in that house with all you boys." Kitty asked skeptically. (A/N: I read some fics about Rogue and Lance having a relationship when she was a B-hood member, but breaking it off when she left. I always wondered what Kitty's reaction would be if it were true and she found out. Let me know if there are any out there like that.)

"Where did that come from?" Lance asked defensively, and a little too quickly for Kitty's taste.

"Just answer the question, Lance, and don't get so defensive, I'm just curious." Kitty said impatiently with a sneer, putting her hands on her hips.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Kitty, stay out of my business." Lance said, a little meaner than he had intended.

"So it is true. I thought Pietro was just trying to mess with me again, but it turns out the little rat actually wasn't." Kitty said snidely.

Flashback

"Hey, Pryde, Lancey the pansy isn't here, he's at work. What do you want?" Pietro asked as he zoomed over to the front door where Kitty had just entered, carrying bags of groceries.

"Don't be such a snot, Pietro, I brought you idiots food so you don't die. Rogue would be so sad if that happened, no idea why, you guys are a bunch of wannabe thugs. Except for Lance, of course." Kitty said as Pietro took some of the bags from her and they carried them into the kitchen. "Be a dear and fetch the rest of the bags, would you?" Kitty asked politely and Pietro was gone and back in seconds with the last few bags of groceries.

"You know, Pryde, speaking of Lance and Rogue, those two had something going on while the girl was living here." Pietro said smoothly as he began to put away the food.

"What are you talking about, Pietro? If there was anything going on between those two, Rogue would have told me, she is my best friend, you know." Kitty said, a bit doubtfully.

"Yeah, maybe now, but she wasn't when she first joined the X-Men, but just think about this for a second. You two spend time together, paint each other's toe nails, gossip, and suddenly you're BFF's. Then you talk to her about being interested in a one Mr. Lance Alvers, and ask her opinion. Struck with guilt, she tells you to go for it, have the perfectly pretty little relationship with the hot guy she can never have. Weeks go by, the Sadie Hawkins dance comes up, and, of course, she encourages you to take the plunge and ask said hot guy to the dance. In return, you try to get her to ask four eyes, but everyone knows he totally wants Big Red to ask him, but unfortunately for everyone, Terryn asks him, and, being the nice guy he is, accepts, like an idiot. After you two are going steady for awhile, the dirty duo meet up and make a pact to never tell of all the things they did together, and vow to keep it their little secret." Pietro said dramatically while the two of them put the groceries away.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that crap?" Kitty deadpanned, with a disbelieving look on her face.

"I really don't care if you believe it or not, but my conscience is clear, so shove off." Pietro said rudely as he sped to the living room and flicked the TV on, leaving Kitty to see herself out.

Reality

"That's what happened." Kitty said spittingly once she finished telling Lance the story. "So, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"That's none of your business." Lance said and walked off, leaving Kitty fuming with a cart full of Christmas stuff.

A/N: Okay, that's what you get for this chapter. Take it or leave it. I'll be updating more often once I get my own internet this week, right now I'm at the neighborhood center.


	8. Chapter 8

Black Velvet

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: Yes, I know that last one sucked, but this will be so much better. I hope.

A few days later finds Rogue and Remy taking a casual stroll down to the gazebo, their new favorite hangout when the craziness of the mansions residents becomes too much, when they happen upon a peculiar scene between two unsuspecting young adults…

"No, Scott, this is not a joke! I think I…" They heard a female voice say in a shaken panic. Rogue pulled Remy into a crouching position in the snow and beckoned him to follow her into the bushes surrounding the gazebo so as to hear and see what was happening a little better.

"Yeah, but… Are you sure? A hundred percent?" They heard another voice, male, ask uncertainly. Once they found a suitable spot, they could now see that the male and female were, in fact, the Perfect Pair, Scott and Jean.

"No, but pretty close. It's been three weeks, Scott, and still nothing." Jean said, throwing her hands up, her voice cracking at the last word. Remy turned to Rogue in confusion, but, to his surprise, she was looking as if she might know what was going on, so he turned back to the scene before him and saw that Scott was pacing back and forth in front of Jean, who stood still, watching him with teary eyes. Remy could tell at once what the conversation was about. He'd seen the movies.

"Okay, this is what we'll do: Let the professor know we're going out for awhile, go to the hospital, find out what's going on, and be back in time for dinner." Scott said with finality, as if things made sense with the world again, as he stopped pacing to face Jean with ill determination.

"Or we could just run down to the convenience store and be back in fifteen minutes and no one will even have to know we're even gone."Jean said, reverting back to taking control of the situation, as per her usual attitude.

"A much better plan, Jean, now let's get out of here before someone sees us." Scott said as he led Jean out of the gazebo and down the snow covered stone path.

"Okay," Rogue started as she stood once she was sure the Dynamic Duo was gone. "What do you think that was all about?" She asked, even though she had a pretty good idea already.

"Well, in my experience, which entails a dozen or so movies about teen pregnancy, I'd say those found themselves in quite the pickle. What say you, Cher?" Remy said, looking at Rogue to find her with a devilish grin on her face and a dangerous gleam in her eye.

"Ah think that Queen Bee and Uptight Scotty bit off more than they can chew. Oh, the gossip, this is too good to keep to ourselves, Remy! We have to tell Kitty, come on." Rogue said and pulled Remy away by his sleeve in the direction Jean and Scott had gone.

A/N: I know this is short, but I was too excited to find out your reactions to make it any longer.

Oh, my dear Wolf skater, the spinner of the web is the keeper of the thread.

-fnk


	9. Chapter 9

Black Velvet

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: Last time we found R&R walking in on an argument between Scott and Jean about some situation or other, this time we find our two deep southerners walking into the Brotherhood Boardinghouse to find yet another seemingly happy couple in the throes of anger and passion.

BTW: Remy and Rogue are waiting until they've rid their minds of the horrible image they unwillingly received at the unsuspecting hands of Logan and Ororo, who have, inevitably, been avoiding the four young mutants that caught them red handed, before they have a chat with the Wolverine.

Entering the Brotherhood house…

"-man whore, Lance, so I, like, wouldn't doubt it if it was true!" Was the first thing Rogue and Remy heard coming from a furious looking Kitty when they entered the B-hood house about an hour after they overheard Jean and Scott discussing their shady situation.

"Whoa, what did we walk into?" Rogue asked obliviously, as her and Remy took their coats off to hang them up, not taking their eyes off Kitty standing at the foot of the stairs and Lance halfway up them, both looking angry and offended as they looked at them when Rogue spoke. Although, what happened next, no one saw coming. Kitty, looking positively livid, marched up to Rogue and, with a resounding smack, slapped Rogue across the face so hard she stumbled back a few steps and had to brace herself against the wall with the hand that wasn't holding her throbbing cheek, which already had a nice red handprint on it.

"You both can screw off!" Kitty yelled as she snatched her jacket off the coat rack, flung the front door open, and stormed off toward her new VMW Bug that the Professor had bought her after she passed her driver's test, after the fourth try, and sped off to wherever.

"Cher, you be a'right?" Remy asked Rogue as he closed the door that Kitty hadn't bothered to close, and rushed to her side.

"That girl just slapped the bejesus outta me, what the heck did you do to her, Lance?!" Rogue spat in astonishment, as Kitty had rarely gotten violent with anyone, even if they deserved it.

"We need to have a talk with Pietro, Rogue, he's been spreading stories about us saying that we had a thing back when you still lived here, and apparently Kitty actually believed him. So now she's all bent out of shape with us because I couldn't be any more convincing when I tried to tell her it was not true, and now she thinks I'm a 'soul devouring man whore', and you're a 'two-cent gutter slut', her words exactly." Lance said as he descended the stairs and walked over to where the two southerners were standing.

"She said that?"

"Yeah, she was real ticked."

"And she had the audacity to assault me?"

"Apparently."

"And she told us both to screw off?"

"You were there."

"Wow, that gal is really growin' a spine, Ah'm proud." Rogue said with a motherly tender sort of look on her face, as she rubbed her still stinging cheek.

"That frightens me. Look, about Pietro-" Lance started but Rogue cut him off.

"You deal with that punk, and I'll deal with the head case. Agreed?" Rogue said quickly.

"Gladly. Have you talked to your sperm donor yet? You're really dragging this out." Lance said unconcerned.

"Don't go there." Both Remy and Rogue said with a shudder as they quickly grabbed their coats and took their leave.

Once they got back to the mansion and saw that Kitty's car was, in fact, parked haphazardly in the driveway and they heard her raging from her open bedroom window, Rogue and Remy hurried up the steps, stopping only for a second to peer into Kurt's room, see him sitting on his bed with the drapes pulled closed and staring forlornly at his framed picture of him and Amanda, give a sigh of sympathy, and hurry along to Kitty's room.

"Kit, we need to talk!" Rogue said dramatically as she threw Kitty's bedroom door open, but almost instantly had to dodge a flying stapler that was thrown her way and was caught by Remy, who tossed it unceremoniously on the floor with a look of resignation.

"Cher, Ah do believe we should leave this matter for when the petite chat be a wee bit calmer, non?" Remy said as he pulled Rogue out of harm's way as Kitty continued to yell obscenities and unpleasant phrases as she threw her bedding on the ground and kicked her bed.

"Yeah, like tomorrow when she has no voice to rage with." Rogue said quietly, then spoke up to address Kitty, "Yo, Kit, we're gonna leave ya to it, 'kay?" She said with a wave and slammed the door closed. "Jubes will calm the girl down soon enough. What say we get this convo with Logan over and done with, eh?" Rogue said ignoring the shattering of glass that came from the other side of the door.

"What ya gonna say to 'im?" Remy asked curiously.

"Not a clue. You get Kurt, Ah'll get Laura, than we meet back at the foyer and search for him together, knocking on every door before we enter, deal?" Rogue said, and they parted ways, leaving Kitty to take her rage out on her beloved room.

Remy quickly found Kurt quickly enough in his room sulking, but had a difficult time extracting him from his bed.

"No, leave me here to die! I don't want to live without her!" Kurt exclaimed as he held tightly onto his bedpost while Remy tried to pull him away.

"Ya know, mon ami, it's at times like these when I can really see the family resemblance between you and mon Cher!"Remy said as he strained to remove Kurt from his room. 'Kids got a grip, though, I tell ya.' He thought to himself.

Rogue, however, had a hard time finding Laura. She was about to give up when she found her under a tree by the cliffs with none other than Ray Crisp, who, in Rogue's opinion, was sitting a little too close to her - not sister, but her sisterly friend, yeah, that works – for her comfort. Laura, not having any sense of what was acceptable of two teenagers of the opposite gender, didn't know there were boundaries, but Ray, who knew every boundary, and was almost on Laura's lap, had been warned about Laura's social inaptitude, and was also warned, by Rogue, which boundaries he was not to cross. Having Laura alone anywhere, as she knew how Ray's mind worked, was a big rule breaker in Rogue's book.

With this in mind, Rogue stormed over to the two, Ray giving her an uncertain look, and pulled Laura up by her upper arm and led her away, leaving him to wonder what had happened.

"What's wrong?" Laura asked once Rogue slowed down and let go of her arm.

"Well, for one, I told you not to be alone with that boy, much less away from the mansion, I don't trust him. Or any other teenage boy for that matter. And two, we're going to go talk to Logan." Rogue said and the two walked back to the mansion in silence. Laura wondering what was so wrong with just talking to Ray, and Rogue devising the perfect punishment DR session for him.

"Cher, what took so long? Ah was about to come lookin' for ya." Remy said when Rogue and Laura entered the foyer and shook off their snow covered jackets.

"No need, Ah only had to search the entire mansion and grounds to find Miss X23 here shacked up under a tree with that suave little Ray Crisp boy." Rogue said and took in Kurt's depressed face. "What's with you?" she asked, though she was certain she knew the answer.

"He be mad 'bout me draggin' him away from sulkin' party." Remy said, eyeing Laura, who was eyeing him in return.

"Don't cry, Kurt, it'll be okay, you'll see." Rogue said in an unusually sweet voice, but it seemed to cheer Kurt up, who gave a sniff and small smile. "See, you guys will figure something out." Rogue said, returning Kurt's smile before she turned to Remy. "Okay, ready to get this over with?"

"Yes." All three of them said in varying tones of enthusiasm.

A/N: Strangely enough, I wrote this while listening to the soundtrack to 'Bring It On', so if it seems a bit excessive, that's why.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, Remy and Rogue are slowly becoming joined at the hip. A confession to Kitty about Rogue's feelings for the Gambit hotness is just around the corner.

-fnk


	10. Chapter 10

Black Velvet

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: I thought I would need help with this chapter, but I've decided to just write it and see where it goes, seeing as things seem to work best that way, anyway.

The Professors study…

"Yo, Prof, Ah need some psycho assisting, if ya don't mind." Rogue said in a no-nonsense sort of tone as she barged into the Professor's study, with Kurt, Laura, and Remy following behind her silently.

"Rogue, I know I've spoken to you about knocking, if nowhere else, than at least on my door. Had you come in just a few minutes before now, you would have interrupted an important business call." The Professor said reprimandingly. "Now, what is it you need my help with?" he asked as he wheeled around to where Logan was standing by book shelf, uninterestedly looking at the titles of the books.

"Mah bad, Professah, but Ah would be most humbled if ya would look at those pesky memories Mystique gave meh, and make sure they weren't tampered with, if ya don't mind." Rogue said, saying 'Mystique' with a note of distaste in her voice, and taking a page from Remy's book and trying the extreme politeness approach that always seemed to work for him.

"Yes, of course, then we can get the matter of your parentage out of the way, so you and Logan can mend the rift that seems to have formed between the two of you." The Professor said, gesturing for Rogue to sit in the armchair next to him.

"Yeah, sure…" Rogue said, unsure how to answer how to answer such a statement, as she had just noticed they had an extra body in the room that she was previously unaware of.

"Professor, have there been any calls for me today? Perhaps from Washington." Kurt asked with a hint of hope in his voice.

"No, Kurt, I'm sorry, but there have not been any calls at all today." The Professor said regretfully as Kurt's spirits dropped to the floor again and he sank onto the couch in front of the fire gloomily.

"Now, Rogue, open your mind and retrieve the information obtained by Mystique." The Professor said as he wheeled in front of Rogue, placed his hands on either side of her face, and they both closed their eyes in concentration.

Meanwhile, Remy and Laura quietly made their way over to where the two sat in deep concentration, and watched in awe, as they had never seen a psychic scan performed before. Even Logan wandered over to watch in anticipation. After a few minutes, though, the Professor spoke, without opening his eyes or moving in the slightest, to Kurt.

"Kurt, if you could, please answer the door before our guest ring the doorbell." He said, more a statement than a question, to which Kurt silently 'ported away, and all was silent again.

In the foyer with Kurt…

Knock, knock, knock…

Bamf!

Kurt waved his hand to dissipate the smoke around him before he peered through the glass front doors, trying to see who was at the door after nightfall, but had to turn on the porch light to see properly. When he did, the sight that greeted him instantly lifted his spirits into the sky, and spread the biggest smile across his enlightened face.

"Are you gonna let me in?"

Back in the Prof's study…

"Well, Rogue, as far as I can tell, the memories you received from your mother are genuine and untampered with." The Professor said once he had determined the results of his scanning of Rogue's memories.

"That sneak!" Rogue said, half expecting to be told Mystique had lied, but half relieved that she hadn't been lied to, though she wouldn't admit to that part of herself.

"So, Prof, yer sayin' Stripes is my kid? By blood and everything?" Logan asked, a little taken aback by this revelation. (A/N: I really do use that word a lot…)

"As near as I can tell, yes, but to know for sure, I would indeed have to ask Rogue's biological mother. Since that is a near impossibility, we'll just have to make do with the information we have." The Professor said as he wheeled away from Rogue, to give her some space.

"Hmph." Logan grunted to show he had acknowledged what the Prof had said, but after a minute he looked up to see Rogue staring off into space, deep in thought. He noticed Remy looking at him, trying to gauge his reactions, he suspected and glared at him until he looked away at the fire. Laura was watching Rogue, quite intensely, probably studying her reaction for later analysis. Logan moved to sit on the couch beside Rogue's chair and took a deep breath to gather his thoughts before he spoke up.

"Look, Stripes, I'm… sorry, I guess, for not being there, or remembering to be there, for you or your mom. I don't remember her, but I'm sure… that if I did… had I known about you… well, I don't know about before I lost my memories, but today, the man I am now, I honestly think I would have ended up doing the right thing by you. Eventually, I mean, I am a bit of a hard head. Well, ironically, both metaphorically and physically." Logan finished with a nervous chuckle that sounded more than a little forced, before the room lapsed into silence again. Rogue, on the other hand, didn't know what to think. Her mind was racing, and she was about to ditch the whole situation, but she caught Remy's eyes and, if she wasn't going crazy, she would have sworn, to no one out loud, that she saw what looked like understanding. Which was weird because only her brother could really understand her. 'Strange,' she thought, but, none the less, decided to say what she felt, rather than run away, as she had been doing the last four months.

"It's okay, really, Ah don't blame ya." Rogue said, peeling her eyes from Remy's to look at Logan, who looked at her in surprise. She supposed he had been expecting her to yell and scream and throw stuff, like Kitty had been doing before Jubes and Amara finally put an end to her tantrum. Truthfully, though, she had expected to do the same. "It ain't yer fault; nobody told ya 'bout meh. Really, it ain't even Mystique's fault, when ya get down to it. She did what she could, and even though Ah'm a bit messed because of her parenting, Ah don't believe she could have chosen a better time to tell me. I don't get why she made me drive all around the country just to tell me though."

"Wow, Stripes, I expected ya to try and bash my head open. You really have grown up." Logan said. "I think, as far as our being pops and kid goes, we need to not let it affect things. It wouldn't be fair if the other students thought Ah was favorin' ya because yer my spawn." Logan said lightheartedly.

"Yeah, yer rahght, just take this whole thing slow and ease into our whole, eh, 'father, daughter' roles, see what happens." Rogue said and stood up to stretch, signaling the end of the conversation. "Speaking of, you should really have a chat with Ray about bein' alone with this girl, Ah know how that boy thinks, and Ah don't want my little sister to be put in some kind of compromising position because he can't control his teenage urges." She said before she and Remy left the room without waiting for a response.

"Girl?" Logan said and looked over at Laura with an expectant look.

"Yes?" Laura asked obliviously.

"Don't 'yes?' me, start talking." Logan said gruffly.

A/N: Okay, that's that, finally, and now you know where they stand with each other. I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

We'll deal with Kitty's malfunction next chapter, along with what Scott and Jean are up to. That's the plan anyway.

Please review, thanks so much.

-fnk


	11. Chapter 11

Black Velvet

Chapter 11

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: Last chapter Rogue had a sit down with Logan, and they decided to play nice. Which, however, may not be the case for Ray and Logan. Hmmmm… I wonder how that will go…

In Kitty's room…

"And then, I, like, totally slapped that home wrecker right across her fat, boyfriend stealing face!" Kitty said, and wailed at the top of her lungs, or so it seemed to Jubilee and Amara, who were sitting next to her on her bed after they helped her put her room back together, and cleaned up the broken glass, before she got in trouble with Logan, who, like most of the residents, had been avoiding her.

"It's okay, Kitty, it isn't your fault Lance is such a dog." Jubilee said, rubbing Kitty's back as Amara handed her another handful of tissues.

"Yeah, I'm so not surprised by that, Rogue is so desperate for attention, she'd even go so far as to hook up with Lance Alvers. I mean, come on, who else is that self loathing to go for that… thing?" Amara asked with a disgusted look on her face.

"I aaaaammmmm!" Kitty sobbed out with a new wave of wailing howls as she hid her face in the fistfuls of snotty tissues she was holding. Jubes and Amara exchanged exasperated looks over Kitty's bowed head, before relief came in the forms of Remy and Rogue, who just barged right in and walked to the end of Kitty's bed to stand.

"Take a load off, ladies." Rogue said pointing to the door. "I'll take it from here."

"You're a life saver, Rogue." Jubes said and hurried around them and sprinted out the room.

"Yeah, we owe you one." Amara said with a grateful smile as she, too, bolted out the door, slamming it behind her.

"Mm-hm." Rogue said, unconvinced as she watched them flee before turning to her seemingly broken hearted best friend.

"I said I never wanted to see you again!" Kitty yelled when she saw Rogue standing at the end of her bed.

"Too bad, now shut yer trap and listen." Rogue said authoritatively, and Kitty shamelessly obeyed. "Yer an idiot, Kit, Pietro was obviously lying to you, and Lance was infatuated with you before he even knew Ah existed. So get yer act together and start apologizin' fer talkin' crap on me, callin' me names, and slappin' me in the face." Rogue said, putting her hands on her hips expectantly.

"No, you expect me to, like, believe that?" Kitty said accusatorily, glaring at Rogue.

"Dude, Kit, Lance is like that idiot older brother ya just can't shake, no matter what you do. Besides, Ah am a lady, and, though it may not look it, Ah do have standards and class, which are two Lance doesn't have." "That's true." "And, if ya remember correctly, back then Ah was so obsessed with Scott, Ah couldn't hardly see straight. For, lahke, ever." Rogue said, shuddering at the thought that she used to be like Remy. She could see the gears working in Kitty's mind as she thought over what she said. Then, suddenly and without warning…

"Oh, my gosh! You're, like, totally right, Rogue! I'm totally sorry I was such a crazy biotch to you! You're my best friend, totally and forever! I didn't mean a thing I said! Can you ever forgive me?!" Kitty cried as she got off her bed, stumbled over to Rogue, shoving Remy roughly aside on her way, and threw herself at Rogue in a frantic hug, careful not to touch her skin.

"Ya can start by cleaning yerself up, ya got snot and boogers all over ya face. And don't worry about that Pietro jerk off, Lance is dealing with him." Rogue said as she held Kitty at arm's length.

"You're right, of course, I need to get myself presentable. I'll be back." Kitty said and went to her bathroom and closed the door. After a minute they heard the water running in the sink and Remy turned to Rogue, who had started cleaning up the used tissues.

"So, Cher, were ya really obsessed with four eyes?" Remy asked with a smirk.

"Not as much as I let everyone believe, but yeah, and no, Ah never ever had a thing for Lance. If he had somethin' fer me, that's his problem." Rogue said with a shrug. "Why do you ask?" she asked skeptically.

"Well, it just seems so, Ah dunno, cliché to moi. Misunderstood outcast girl crushes on goody-two-shoe boy? That don't seem a bit odd? Come on, Cher, ya had ta know he'd get wit Red in the end, right?" Remy said as he walked over to lean against Kitty's desk, with his arms and ankles crossed.

"Promise not to tell?" Rogue asked after a minutes debate.

"Cross mah heart, Cher, yo secret's safe with me." Remy said, unusually serious.

"Ah did know, but to me, Scott was like this sort of unsure kindness Ah never got at the Brotherhood house. For awhile, Ah also misread mah feelings for him, and just thought it was attraction Ah felt. In reality, though, it was a sort of kinship. Lahke we were kindred spirits or something. It all seems so stupid now, even laughable, but in a way he reminded me of… well, me. You know, the whole dangerous and uncontrollable power, no one understands me, someone who gets me, whatever…" Rogue trailed off, not meeting Remy's eye. Remy, however, was struck by something he had been told not long ago by the last person he had expected to hear it from.

_"Maybe not, but you do understand her, more so than the rest of us, anyway. And she could use someone like you around."_

_"Someone with a dangerous power that is difficult to control, and someone who, as you said, has been down the same roads."_

Remy smiled softly to himself as he thought about what Jean had said to him.

'Maybe the girl knows what she be talkin' 'bout, after all.' He thought, before he looked at Rogue, who'd finished cleaning up and was perched on Kitty's bed.

"It ain't stupid at all, Cher, we all feel that way, at least once in our lives. It's what gives us hope, and helps us get through the day when we think for sure we won't, havin' someone who fits the bill, someone on our level, ya know?" Remy said genuinely.

"Yeah, Ah think so." Rogue said thoughtfully. "Yer the last person Ah would expect to hear something like that from, Swamp Rat." She said, not unkindly though, but as if she were seeing her perverted stalker/constant shadow in a new light. "Ya know, Swamp Rat, yer a real stand up guy." She said after a minute, offering him a real smile, one that just rose up unbidden, one that was mirrored on Remy's face.

"Okay, so you, like, obviously came here to tell me something, other than that Pietro Maximoff is a stinking jerk, so let's hear it." Kitty said as she threw open her bathroom door, looking good as new, and plopped herself down on her bed next to Rogue who told her everything she had seen and heard between Scott and Jean down by the gazebo, and what happened in the Professor's study. Once she finished her story, Kitty instantly started in on what she thought about the whole thing. The two girls swapped theories about Mr. and Mrs. Do-No-Wrong for a few hours before Remy and Rogue bid Kitty goodnight and left her room, shutting the door after them. Remy walked Rogue quietly to her room, said goodnight, and then went to his own room to get some sleep before he had to be up before dawn to give a Danger Room session on evading security measures.

'It's final,' Remy thought as he lay in bed, waiting for sleep to come, 'today was a good day.'

A/N: Truth be told, I didn't expect this to be so long, or so deep, I figured it would be another short one, but, alas, it is not. I think I like how it turned out.

Review and let me know, especially on this one, if none of the others. Thanks so much.

-fnk


	12. Chapter 12

Black Velvet

Chapter 12

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: Meh… good reads.

Then…

_Knock, knock, knock…_

_Bamf!_

_Kurt waved his hand to dissipate the smoke around him before he peered through the glass front doors, trying to see who was at the door after nightfall, but had to turn on the porch light to see properly. When he did, the sight that greeted him instantly lifted his spirits into the sky, and spread the biggest smile across his enlightened face._

"_Are you gonna let me in?" _

Now…

"Amanda?!" Kurt exclaimed in ecstatic disbelief. "W-What are you doing here?" He asked, thoroughly confused.

"Freezing, can I come in?" Amanda asked, and Kurt noticed that she was shivering and covered in snow.

"Of course!" Kurt said as he hastened to let her in out of the cold. "How did you get here? Why are you here? I thought your parents said they never wanted you to see me again, did they let you come here?" Kurt asked in a rush as he helped Amanda out of her coat, and noticed that she was completely soaked and shivering like mad.

"'Course they don't know I'm here. Well, they've probably figured it out by now, that I left, anyway, but I'm here now, so it doesn't matter." Amanda said through chattering teeth.

"Do you want to borrow some dry clothes?" Kurt asked, wincing at her purple lips.

"That'd be great." Amanda said in great relief as Kurt 'ported them to his room so he could find her something to keep her warm. He was sure Rogue wouldn't have minded if he loaned her clothes out to Amanda, but he didn't want to risk it. Kurt found her a matching sweatshirt and sweatpants set and some clean socks for her to change into. He handed her the pile of clothes and she went into the bathroom to change out of her wet clothes. Kurt sat on his bed and waited patiently for her to get changed.

"What are we going to tell the Professor when he asks how and why you just ended up on our front steps, in the middle of the night?" Kurt called to Amanda from his bed. He heard a muffled answer come from behind the door but couldn't make out the words. "Come again?" He asked, and the bathroom door opened and Amanda stepped out, drying her hair with a towel.

"I said, we'll just tell them the truth." Amanda said, but before she could continue, Kurt's bedroom door opened and Logan came in followed by the Prof and Ororo.

"Which would be what, Sefton?" Logan asked as he came to stand by the wall across from Kurt's bed, the Professor beside him and Ororo stood beside the bed.

"That I ran away." Amanda said dignifiedly, standing up to her full height.

"Well, that part's obvious, girl, what we want to know is 'why'." Logan said crossing his arms.

"I tried to tell my parents they couldn't keep us apart, but they wouldn't listen." Amanda said unashamed.

"Won't your parents be worried about you, child?" Ororo asked in her usual concerned, motherly voice.

"Like crazy, but that's their fault. I warned them." Amanda said and crossed her arms defiantly. Kurt wondered briefly if this girl might actually be crazy before the Professor spoke.

"Amanda, did it occur to you what you would do if something went wrong, if you had come across someone with dangerous intentions towards a girl of your age?" the Prof asked.

"No, not really." Amanda said dejectedly.

"You realize I will have to call your parents to let them know you're here and safe, don't you?" The Professor asked.

"Yes, sir." Amanda said and looked to Kurt for support, who was, once again, looking as if someone had kicked his puppy.

"Very well." The Professor said and wheeled out of the room with Ororo behind him.

"Let's go, you two." Logan said and followed them out as they trudged along after the Professor and Ororo.

"Sit down." Logan ordered them to sit on the small bench outside the Prof's study, where all three adults entered and the door was closed behind them.

The two of them sat, and for awhile they were silent, trying to make out the muffled voices from inside the study. They occasionally made small talk about the happenings with the mansion and Amanda's new relatives. They sat, paced, sat, and paced some more in turn. Then, finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the study doors opened to reveal Logan.

"Inside crime dogs." He said and stood to the side to allow them entry.

"I spoke with your parents for quite a bit of time." The Professor started once Kurt and Amanda had settled themselves on the couch in front of the fireplace, with Ororo in the armchair to the one side, and the Prof on their other side.

"When will they be here to pick me up?" Amanda asked immediately, imagining how furious her parents would be once they got here.

"On the contrary, Miss Sefton," The Professor started again, causing both Amanda and Kurt to look at him in surprise. "Your parents, the instructors," The Professor gestured towards Ororo and Mr. McCoy, who was settled on the floor in front of the bookcase, immersed in a rather large book, "and I have come to the agreement that, to keep something like this from happening again, it would be best if you were to spend your last semester of high school here with us." Both Kurt and Amanda exchanged excited looks of elation before the Professor continued. "However, you will be sharing a room with Rogue, who will make sure you don't get into trouble whilst you are staying here." The Professor said, and, as if on cue, Logan reentered the study followed by a slightly annoyed looking Rogue. "So, without further ado, off to bed you go. It is late; we will discuss the do's and don'ts of this institute in the morning, and your parents wish for you to phone them as soon as you wake up." The Professor said as he led them out of the study.

"Come on, Amanda, we'll snatch a couch from the foyer for you to sleep on until we can get you a bed." Rogue whispered to Amanda as she steered her down the opposite way Kurt started down.

"Where are you two going?" Kurt said when he noticed the girls weren't behind him as he expected they would be.

"We're ganking a couch from in here so Amanda doesn't have to sleep on the floor. Logan said her parents gave specific instructions that she wasn't to be alone because they don't want their only daughter doing inappropriate things with you." Rogue said as they entered the foyer and picked out a couch to haul to her room.

"Oh, well, wouldn't it be easier if I just 'ported it to your room?" Kurt asked as he watched the girls pick up the heavy looking couch and start towards the stairs.

"Where's the fun in that?" Rogue said giving him an 'are you serious?' look. "Make yaself useful and put this girls clothes in the wash so she'll have something to wear tomorrow." Rogue said as the two girls struggled up the stairs carrying the couch. Kurt just shrugged his shoulders and 'ported away with a 'have it your way' look at his stubborn sister.

"So guess what." Rogue said after Kurt left in a puff of stinking smoke.

"What? I don't know." Amanda said and the couch slipped from her hands and nearly missed her unprotected feet and Rogue set her end down so they could take a break.

"Logan's my father. Biologically, I mean." Rogue said, looking down at the couch and play with a loose piece of string on it.

"Okay? What's wrong with that? Kurt told me you guys were always like father-daughterly towards each other, right?" Amanda asked leaning forward on the couch with all her weight, which wasn't much, so it wouldn't fall down the stairs, as they had already carried it halfway up.

"Well, yeah, Ah mean, we always understood each other and were there for each other and all, but now it just feels different. It's hard to explain, but the weirdness is there. Ah told him we would both make the effort to be like family or whatever, y'know, and we talked about our feelings and had an epic bonding experience and things were great." Rogue said exaggerating.

"Mr. Logan talked about his feelings? Whoa, that's impressive." Amanda said raising her eyebrows incredulously.

"No, he tripped over himself to tell me he woulda eventually done the right thing had he known." Rogue said with a shrug, still not looking at her. "Weirdly enough, Ah'm actually a little glad, after a lot of thinking over these past few months and tonight, that he wasn't there. 'Cause as messed up in the head as Ah am and as mean as Ah can be and heard headed and stupidly stubborn and sometimes obsessive, Ah'm not really sure Ah would have me be any other way." Rogue said as she looked around the room before settling her eyes on the crazy girl that had hitchhiked her way across the country to be with her little brother with another shrug.

"That was really deep, especially for you." Amanda said in awe, seemingly not taking notice of the actual words that were spoken.

"Ah know! It has been so weird lately! It's like everything Ah say these days is like all weepy and sappy and sugary romance book worthy, it's getting a little annoying." Rogue said with a look mixed between disgust and like she was coming down with the flu.

"Do you know what I think? Mind you, this is just from what I've heard from Kurt, but I think you're realizing that you can't shut the world out anymore. Like when you were younger, you could hide behind too much make up and a bad attitude, but now you're growing up and realizing that the world doesn't revolve around this pathetically small and bigoted town and there's more than stupid high school drama to deal with in life. But that's just what me and Kurt think about you. It's a combined opinion." Amanda said with a curt nod.

"First of all, Ah was expressing mah individuality, which just so happened to involve too much make up and a bad attitude." Rogue sneered and gave the couch a playful shove at Amanda. "Secondly, Ah didn't think Ah could shut the world out, Ah thought the world was shutting me out, with my typical emotionally retarded 'what does it all mean?' teenage self with a blind old bat as a role model, so forgive me for making the best of things. And, yes, Ah am growing up. This town is pathetic, now come on, Ah'm tired." Rogue said and the girls heaved the couch up again and carried it up the steps and down the hall to Rogue's room where they had a difficult time fitting it through the narrow doorway. Once they had the thing inside and positioned across the room from the bed, Rogue went to the linen closet down the hall to get a pillow and blanket for Amanda.

"Hey, why did you tell me all that stuff? About you and Mr. Logan and all that." Amanda asked once they were settled down to sleep.

"Dunno, probably because you have an unbiased opinion of him. And me. And what's been going on." Rogue said and paused to consider it for a minute. "Don't get me wrong, everyone here is great, but Logan's never put you through two hours of Danger Room time, so you don't really have a reason to hate him, and therefore can listen without prejudging. So ya see?" Rogue said and pulled her covers up to her chin and nestled deeper into her comfy bed.

"Oh, that's cool, I guess." Amanda said nonchalantly. "Well, thanks for allowing me to sleep in your room, but do you know where Kurt went? I figured he would have been back in no time to try and force his help on us." Amanda asked, slightly concerned.

"He probably figured we could handle it and went to sleep. He'll be all over you tomorrow once he figures out that you're really here and he didn't just dream it up." Rogue said.

"Oh, okay."

And with that the girls rolled over and fell asleep within minutes.

A/N: Another chapter complete. Next chapter we'll find out what's going down with Jean and Scott, and maybe some lovey dovey time between a pair of young teens. I can hardly wait.

Shout out to Wolf skater for her awesome reviews. Bassos.

-fnk


	13. Chapter 13

Black Velvet

Chapter 13

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: K, we're gonna find out what's up with Jean and Scott and why they're acting weird. I'm sure most of you have guessed but you'll find it has a twist. Hopefully it plays out as planned. We aren't gonna hang with the youngsters this chapter, boo, I know, but I think the change in plans will compensate. Totally wrote this while my cousin and a friend of mine were playing Gears of War 3. Fun times.

Enough of my babbling, on to the story!

Earlier that day after Jean and Scott left the gazebo… why they were there when they know its Rogue's favorite spot is beyond me… Jean starts freaking out…

"Scott, what are we going to do?" Jean asked her boyfriend of a year and some months and best friend of much longer. "If there's a baby in here, I could lose my scholarship. I wouldn't be able to go to school, much less graduate or get employment. Not to mention my family would never speak to me again. But even if, by chance, none of that happened, I would still be in the hole. I want to graduate and go into clinical work, but I don't think I could do that with a baby. My life would be over." Jean said in a panicked voice as all these scenarios played out in her head as she said them.

"Don't worry, Jean, everything's gonna be fine. Either way." Scott said as he reached over and took Jean's hand in his, using the other to steer, and gave her a reassuring look.

"That's very reassuring, Scott, but let's just pretend for a minute that there is a baby. What… what do you want to do? I mean, IF there's anything to worry about. W-Will you be okay… with keeping it? Or, would you prefer…?" Jean said uncertainly, leaving the last question unfinished as a lump of fear grew as she imagined the worst.

"I think we should wait for those decisions. IF we have to make a decision, it would be best to wait and ask the Professor or Storm for advice. In case you've forgotten, Jean, we may be the oldest but we're still just kids. No matter how much responsibility and maturity we gain, we are still going to make mistakes. It's all a part of life. As far as our recreational activities that put us in this position, we were idiots about it." Scott said with a non-comitial shrug.

"How can you sit there and say all that, calm as can be, without a care in the world?" Jean asked in astonishment.

"Actually, I'm absolutely terrified. It just doesn't show because it's not supposed to. I'm supposed to be the leader, always supportive, optimistic, answers for every question, explanations for every situation, you know." Scott said with a reminiscent smile and another shrug.

"I'm sorry for that. I didn't realize we put that much pressure on you." Jean said and looked out her window forlornly.

"Its fine, I really don't mind. Once I become a full-fledged X-Man these skills will prove very useful." Scott said with a small smile. Jean didn't answer, so they rode in an uncomfortable and anxious silence for what felt like hours before they finally came to a stop in the parking lot of a small shop and go convenience store. The two got out of the car quite apprehensively, and walked into the store hand in hand trying to act natural, even though all four of the customers that were looking around the store uninterestedly before the two young adults came in could see that they were as nervous and shifty as a mouse in a cage with a sleeping snake.

"How many should we get?" Scott asked as they looked through the small selection of pregnancy tests.

"Well, I've never had to do this before, but if it were completely my decision I would say we get one of each kind, just in case. My sister told me that one of her friends cousins brothers girlfriend, which equates to my sister herself, said that she got the cheapest one, she didn't say which one, and when she took the test it said she was pregnant, so then she told her parents and they set up a test at the hospital and all that, but then it turns out that it was a false positive. It sucked for her because her parents didn't even know she was sexually active, so she got into a bunch of trouble and was grounded for a whole summer and couldn't go to prom. Again, I think that happened to my sister instead of her friends cousins brothers girlfriend, because she was asking all kinds of questions about what to do in that kind of situation. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I found out what happened." Jean said with a small laugh.

"So we're getting one of each?" Scott asked quickly, eying the customers that were giving his girlfriend weird looks, wanting to get out of the place as soon as possible.

"Yeah, sounds good." Jean said and grabbed four different tests and the two hurried to the front counter to pay for them once she had noticed the looks she was receiving.

"Aren't you two a little young to be buyin' these? Didn't nobody ever tell ya 'bout purity until marriage? It's in the Bible, ya know, the Good Book, or do mutie freaks not read those?" the cashier, a scrawny, grizzly man with broken teeth, said, looking back and forth between the two with obvious disgust on his face.

"Can you just ring up our purchases, please, sir?" Scott said with forcefully friendly smile as he took out a twenty from his pocket to pay.

"Ah don't sell to mutants." The cashier said and folded his arms with a 'holier than thou' sneer on his face and looked down his crooked nose at the two.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea." Jean said mockingly as she picked up the four boxes, slammed Scotts twenty on the counter, and said very sarcastically, "You should be proud, because its people like you that are the reason America is the number one country in this world. Keep the change. Let's go, Scott." she said and turned on her heels to stomp out the door, Scott right behind her, leaving the cashier fuming and lost for words as the other customers who had witnessed it all started to whisper and laugh at the bigoted man.

"Jean, you can't just talk to people like that, it's bad for the public acceptance of the mutant race." Scott said seriously with concern in his voice as they drove away.

"So we're just supposed to let them walk all over us? How does that help anything?" Jean asked, astounded.

"You're starting to sound like Rogue." Scott said and took a turn a little too sharply as he sped down the road, pushing the speed limit.

"You know something, I think her and the others that think like her have right idea." Jean said, glaring at him for his wayward driving.

"Jean, don't tell me –" Scott started in a worried tone of voice before Jean cut him off.

"Don't worry yourself, Scott, I'm not talking like Magneto, I'm just saying that we should be defending ourselves against all these single minded idiots who believe in a one dimensional way of thinking, that's all." Jean said with finality and turned to look out her own window, signaling that the conversation was closed. Scott, however, gave her an uncertain look, but didn't say anything; instead he drove the rest of the way to the mansion, not really contributing to Jeans efforts to make small talk. (A/N: A sign of things to come.)

Once Scott parked the car in the garage, Jean found a plastic bag to put the tests in and the two walked awkwardly inside, hoping to avoid questions. They stopped at the kitchen where Scott grabbed the gallon of orange juice that had just been bought and they hurried up to Jeans room, passing a screaming Kitty on the way, but didn't bother to find out what was wrong, instead they locked themselves in Jeans room.

"Okay, the directions say to pee on the end that isn't plastic, and wait three minutes for it to season, and it'll tell you what's going on." Jean said, summing up the directions on the back of one of the test boxes. "I'm sure that it'll be pretty much the same with the other three." Jean said as she checked the other boxes.

"Okay, so here," Scott said and handed Jean the gallon of orange juice. "You're going to need a full bladder." Jean reluctantly took the jug from him and gave it a suspicious look before she uncapped it and took a drink.

"This is pretty good OJ. Do you want to watch something while we wait?" Jean asked, gesturing towards her small collection of DVD's and sat on the floor at the foot of her bed while Scott picked through the chick flicks, and quickly decided on 'Sleepless in Seattle' before he sat down next to Jean on the floor.

After the movie had been playing for awhile, Jean, seemingly out of nowhere, smacked Scott in the chest before she got up in a hurry and headed toward the bathroom, grabbing the plastic bag off the bed and locked the door behind her. Scott, meanwhile, paused the movie and went to sit on the bed to wait patiently for Jean to reemerge from the bathroom. After a minute the bathroom door opened with the sound of the toilet being flushed and Jeans anxious and scared face.

"What's the verdict?" Scott asked with a shaky voice, as he slowly ambled into the bathroom.

"I don't know yet." Jean said and looked from Scott to the sink where she had lined up the four tests. "We should know any second now, though." Jean said and started wringing her hands together. Scott wordlessly stepped up to the sink beside her and grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze before, one by one, the tests showed their results, causing the two to gasp.

A/N: A cliffy. I would have had this written and put up sooner, but I was busy obsessing over a story I've been following, 'Weatherby the Spy', but since I spent the weekend at a friend's house where there was no internet I decided to get this done. You'll have to wait to find out what's going on with these two. It might be next chapter or the one after, I'm not sure yet.

Please review, I seriously wanna know what you all think of this chapter. Thanks.

-fnk


	14. Chapter 14

Black Velvet

Chapter 14

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: This chapter is just going to have the ladies of the mansion. I make no promises about what to expect from this, we're just going to see where this takes us. This chapter in particular may turn 'M' as per conversation topics. You have been warned.

And for the record, my inspiration for getting unstuck on this story is the Saw movies. My cousin loves them. She's five. My aunt says it's blood porn. So you see? Probably not, but that's okay, you will later.

Two days after the events of the last few chapters take place…

Amara and Tabby were talking animatedly about something or other as they walked to the mansion kitchen arm in arm, not knowing that someone was already in there, eating away her anxieties with various forms of fattening foods.

"So, then I was all-" Tabby was saying before she noticed a lone figure sitting in the shadows of the kitchen, apparently just staring at them. Amara gave her a questioning look before she followed her gaze with a gasp. Just as Amara was about to say something the rest of the girls of the mansion came in talking about how they had the mansion to themselves for the weekend, as the boys were at a training ground somewhere unknown with Logan and Mr. McCoy, for what he, Logan, had affectionately referred to as male bonding time.

"What-?" Jubes started before she saw the same silhouetted figure. When everyone had stopped to look, the shadowed person finally spoke.

"I'm on suicide risk." She said in a dead sort of voice.

"Jean?" Tabby asked, slightly astonished that such a phrase would come from Princess Perfect herself.

"No, it's Morgan Freeman; do you have any bones that need collecting?" Jean said in a sarcastic, irritated voice so unlike her usual tone. This had to be serious.

"Only the one in my pants." Tabby said with a cheeky grin on her face as the light switch was flicked on by the ever oblivious Laura.

"Hang on, Jean, I don't know what's going on, but we'll all join you in your… need to eat fatty processed foods." Kitty said encouragingly as all the girls went to the fridge and pulled out various deserts, such as cheesecake for Tabby, a whole pie for Rogue, ice cream for Jubes, and so on, and they all sat at the table and began to eat their desert food of choice. Since Ororo was out shopping she wouldn't be able to lecture them on the proper food diet she had strictly set out for the students to improve their health. After a minute they started up small talk amongst themselves until Jean interrupted them.

"I'm pregnant." She said quietly, although it was heard by everyone in the room as they stopped their conversing dead and stared at Jean, Tabby having dropped her fork at such news.

"Seriously? Are you sure it's not just a food baby?" Tabby asked, going back to her cheesecake.

"Yeah, like, did you have a big lunch or something?" Kitty asked, just as nonchalant as Tabby.

"No, Tabby, it is not a food baby." Jean said, and was about to say something else before she was interrupted by Amanda, who was unconcernedly eating from Rogue's pie pan with her.

"Whose is it?" she asked, not looking up from the pie she was sharing with Rogue.

"Wow, Amanda, are you serious?" Jubes asked, slightly offended on Jean's part that such a question would be asked.

"What? Jean is a very attractive lady, and I am a human, so I hear gossip around the school that you muties don't." Amanda said with a defensive shrug.

"Well, whatever, I'm sure it's Scotts anyway, right, Jean?" Jubes said and turned to Jean for confirmation.

"It is, but it is not a food baby, and it is Scott's, and I know this because I know who was in my bed that night, and besides all of that, I took four pregnancy tests, and I am seriously up the spout with this, excuse my wording, and my parents are going to kill me. I mean, they expect this behavior from my sister, but me? I'm like their pride and joy." Jean said as she slumped down further in her chair and shoved a spoonful of peanut butter in her mouth sulkily.

"How did you generate enough pee for four pregnancy tests? That is amazing." Rogue said in earnest astonishment, that being the only apparent thing she caught.

"I don't know, I drank, like, ten tons of Sunny D, the point is-" Jean said, frustrated, before she was interrupted by Laura.

"Is 'pregnancy before marriage' normal?" Laura asked Rogue curiously as she and Rahne had been sitting back and watching the scene with mild interest, complimenting on it to each other quietly.

"No, Jean's either stupid, or looking for attention." Rogue said off handedly.

"What? No, Rogue, I am not stupid, nor am I looking for attention, unlike you, with your waiting forever to have that talk with your genetic donor." Jean said, glaring at Rogue for a full minute before she continued. "I just told all of you losers that I'm pregnant, and you're acting shockingly cavalier about it all, what is up with that?" She said and looked at each of them in turn.

"You're serious?" Kitty deadpanned as she looked up from the chocolate chip cookie she was eating with wide, stunned eyes, mouth slightly agape.

"This is for real? Like, for _real_ for real?" Tabby asked with a look of disbelief on her face.

"Unfortunately, yes." Jean said a bit exasperated.

"_Oh_ my _Gawd_!" Rogue said, her mouth hanging open with a half chewed bite of pie still on her tongue.

"Really, Rogue, chew your food before you speak, be a lady." Amara said in slight disgust at her friend's lack of manners before she turned to Jean in excitement. "You're really gonna have a baby?"

"That is fantastic." Amanda said, though none of them were sure if the comment was sarcastic or serious in the flat sort of tone she spoke with.

"Am I supposed to be excited or disappointed?" Laura asked no one in particular, unsure if what Jean had said was a good or bad thing.

"A mix of both, I think." Rahne answered quietly, watching the whole display with slight amusement.

"Are you gonna keep it or get rid of it? Because if you do get rid of the thing, which I am in no way saying you should or shouldn't, but if you did, where you go to it? Because if you go to Brookhaven and you're under twenty one you need a note from your doctor, but if you go to Women Now you just have to call." Jubes asked, fiddling with her fork.

"Okay, too much all at once, but thank you guys, this is the emotional reaction I was searching for on the first take." Jean said as she sat up a little straighter. "First off, I haven't really decided what I wanna do yet." She said and folded her hands on top of the tabletop.

"Well, what did Scott say? I'm assuming he knows." Kitty asked as all the girls got serious with the change in atmosphere.

"Yes, Scott knows, and he says he's fine with whatever I want to do." Jean said, with a nod. "Actually he hasn't said much to me the last couple of days, and he's closed his mind off to my telepathy so I have no idea what he's thinking. I don't know how he feels about all this." Jean said, her voice shaking.

"Do you want me to punch him in the face for you?" Rogue said and slammed her fist on the table in sudden enragement.

"Yeah, we can totally jack his car up! That'll teach him to make our girl cry!" Amanda said with hands balled up into fists.

"Why are you taking his crap? Force him to talk to you! Make him listen!" Tabby said, slamming both of her fists on the table as well.

"Slap him to the ground and call him a slut!" Kitty said, imitating how she had slapped Rogue two days ago. "That's how I deal with Lance, and Scott is the same kind of stupid."

"Yeah, you shouldn't have to deal with this all by yourself! Amara and me will have words with him, he'll see reason!" Jubes said and put an arm around Amara's shoulders.

"That's right, Jubilee, I'll hold him, you hit him!" Amara said, punching the air between her and Laura, who was sitting across from her.

"Yeah, Jean, smack him around and tell him to man up and take up his half of the responsibility for the fetus!" Rahne said, voicing her opinion with a soundly slap top the tabletop. (A/N: As you can tell, I'm not gonna bother to try to butcher her accent, you can do that yourselves.)

"Let's cut his throat!" Laura said evilly as she popped her claws out.

"Whoa, that escalated fast." Jean said in mild surprise and everyone looked at Laura with suspicion, as the girl was known to get quite violent, even when it wasn't called for. "Look, ladies, I really appreciate all the support and encouragement, especially your willingness to speak up for me, and I am so very touched, but can you just let me handle it?" Jean said with a bit of hopefulness in her voice.

"Not a chance, Jean, you're our girl and no boy is gonna treat you like this on our watch, am I right, or am I right?" Tabby said with finality, looking around the table as the other girls voiced their affirmative.

"You girls are all amazing, and I am so blessed to have you as my friends and family." Jean said uncharacteristically, and they all just looked at her for a moment before Rogue broke the silence.

"Okay, Jean, whatever, just shut down those touchy feely emotions and open yer yap trap, the baby needs pie." Rogue said and raised a bite of her pie for Jean to eat.

"Okay, that aside, like, what do you want to do?" Kitty asked, steering the conversation back to the original topic.

"Well, I won't know until I talk to Scott, now will I?" Jean said, getting back to the fact that Scott was being a total jackoff to her, which she scoffed at in distaste.

"Okay, new topic, we'll come back to this once we deal with Jeans scratching post." Tabby said, to which Jean just rolled her eyes at the reference.

"Good idea." Kitty said and turned to Amanda. "How did the conversation with your parents go?" she asked, as they had all been too busy with other things to have a real all girl's conversation to gossip and catch up.

"Not good, Kitty, not good at all." Amanda said, a bit disheartened. "They were far less than pleased that I hitch hiked across America to be with Kurt, but it's not like they didn't see it coming. When I was seven my parents took my puppy to the pound because it chewed up my mom's favorite pair of shoes, so I ran away to the pound, a few blocks away, and snuck into the cage he was in with all the other free puppies and stayed there until they showed up to take me home. Sixteen hours later with five police cars and a privet investigator. I didn't think they would ever get over that. They were pretty ticked. When I called them, they initially asked how I was, if I'd gotten into any kind of trouble, all the usual parent stuff. Then they really let me have it. Apparently they had me on speaker on their end, with all my aunts and uncles and cousins listening, and with all those adults yelling at me and my ever so supportive cousins laughing at me hysterically, I had the worst headache when they hung up the phone. Three hours later. The shortened version is that I won't be getting any kind of presents for the next five years, not even a birthday card. They also won't be helping me pay for college. They said if I loved Kurt so much than he can pay for my college tuition. They also said a lot of stuff about how my running away was like stabbing them in the heart and a whole bunch of other emotionally manipulative stuff." Amanda said and rolled her eyes.

"Wow, and Ah thought living with Irene was tough, but she never said Ah couldn't have whatever Ah wanted. Ah feel sorry fer ya, girl, from mah soul." Rogue said with an unusual amount of affection.

"All my parents ever did was ground me, or make me stay home from school." Kitty said sympathetically.

"Well, I don't know why they threw such a hissy fit, I mean, seriously? You guys are the coolest people ever, even without your powers, why wouldn't I want to be in your crew?" Amanda said as if it should have been obvious.

"We are pretty awesome, and I'm sure your running away had everything to with only wanting a completely platonic comradery with us ladies and nothing to do with having the chance for some alone time with your little lover boy and not worrying about your parents input or interference." Jubilee said with a smirk.

"You read me like a book." Amanda said in mock innocence.

"Speaking of lover boys, Rogue, what's going on between you and a one Remy LeBeau?" Kitty asked as she leaned towards Rogue slightly with a mischievous grin.

(Seating, with Jean at the end of the table, starting at her left: Kitty, Rogue, Amanda, Laura, Rahne across from Jean, Amara at Rahne's left, Jubes, Tabby at Jeans right with a space between her and Jubes. FYI.)

"What's going on between her and Gambit?" Jean asked curiously as all the girls sat up a little straighter in their chairs at this new topic and echoed Jeans question variously.

"What are ya going on about now, Kit?" Rogue asked, slightly unimpressed at being put in the limelight.

"The other day, after we had that talk about Pietro being an attention whore, and I went to the bathroom and you and Remy LeBeau, like, had a 'touchy feely moment', as you would say. What happened with that?" Kitty asked, waving her hand at Rogue to explain.

"You heard that?" Rogue asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I heard you two talking, but I didn't understand what you were saying, that's why I ask. Besides, he's not here, so you can speak openly about your feelings for him, and don't try to say you don't have any because I would have to call you a liar, we all know you do, so just spill." Kitty said authoritatively.

"Wow, Kit, you can be quite scary at times, maybe me and you should have just dropped out of school and became dominatrix bitches that beat men." Rogue said as this realization hit her.

"Even though we could still do that, we'd have to save it for another time, now out with it; right now we're talking about you and that hot stuff." Kitty said crossing her arms defiantly.

"What do you want from me?" Rogue said, as she was not quite sure how to respond to Kitty's observation of her relationship with Remy, whatever it may be.

"I want you to admit that you have feelings for Gambit! I don't care what you say, there's something there, and in the spirit of Christmas, even though I'm Jewish, I want you to admit to them! You don't have to say anything to him, but just admitting it to someone is better than not saying anything! If you tell us, than you'll feel a whole lot better!" Kitty almost yelled, as the rest of the girl's piped in with encouraging comments about love and friendship, minus Laura, who really didn't have any experience of her own to form an opinion, so opted to keep quiet.

"OKAY, SHUT UP!" Rogue yelled when the noise started to give her a headache. "Alright, I have some sort of feelings for the obnoxious, irritating, stalking, and, regretfully, devilishly handsome, and stupidly smooth talking Swamp Rat, who I would seriously like to drown, but at the same time snog to death, and do things to that aren't allowed in most countries, but I have no idea if it's hate or I just want to jump his bones, okay!?" Rogue said quickly in one breath, than covered her mouth in embarrassment when she realized how much she said.

"Oh, Christ almighty, girl, you have it worse than we thought." Jubes said after a few moments silence as everyone processed what Rogue had blurted out in a frustrated rush.

"Ugh!" Rogue scowled in disgust as she covered her face with her gloved hands. "Ah know, and Ah hate it, Ah got no idea what to do about it." She said as she felt her face heat up under her hands.

"Why don't you talk to him? You know, like a girl talks to a boy." Rahne said with a slight shrug. "Growing up in a church, I wasn't allowed to talk to boys, so I can't really help, but my foster mom says that if it's the right boy, no matter how little you understand, you'll always know what to say." She said and shrugged when everyone just looked at her. (A/N: I get the feeling that Rahne is a vessel of infinite wisdom, she just keeps it to herself and only let's people see how bright she really is when she deems it necessary.)

"That may be the most inspirational speech Ah have ever heard." Rogue said in mild disbelief.

"'Oh, but thanks so much to you, too, Kitty, seeing as you're the whole reason I even went to Louisiana in the first place, you're such a good friend.'" Kitty said in a sarcastic, mocking, high pitched voice and crossed her arms, looking very much like a ruffled chicken.

"No, kit, you just annoyed me enough to take your advice." Rogue said flatly. "Yer mah best friend, Kit." She said in fake enthusiasm, over exaggerating her southern accent.

"Seriously, though, Rogue, what was Kitty talking about, what happened between you and Gambit?" Amara said, ignoring Kitty's pouty session.

"None ya damn business!" Rogue snapped, not meaning to sound so snarky. "Sorry, but that's between me and him. If ya wanna find out, go ask him." She said politely.

"Oooookay, never mind then." Amara said, taken aback by her odd behavior.

"So, Jean, I'm diein' to know," Tabby started and everyone looked at her with undivided attention. "What was it like? Humping Scott's boney bod?" she asked with a wicked grin, which all the other girls mimicked.

"Amazing!" Jean said gleefully with a wide grin.

"How'd it happen? This whole situation with you being pregers and all." Amanda asked.

"Well, we were off in New York City, at a hotel, separate rooms, of course, for a college interview, and late that night we were just sitting in my room, and I was bored and then it just happened." Jean said with a nonchalant shrug.

"So you got bored and that's how this wonderful miracle came to be?" Jubes asked, slightly bemused, with a knowing smile.

"Well, the act was premeditated." Jean said. "The sex, not the 'let's get pregnant' part." She added as an afterthought.

"When, exactly, did you decide you wanted to have sexual intercourse with him?" Jubes asked suspiciously.

"I don't know, probably a couple years ago when I had that whole freak out with my powers and all that drama, after he told me he knew me better than anyone." Jean said, reminiscing.

"You love him!" Jubilee said accusatorily as her suspicions were confirmed.

"What? No! I- I have very complex feelings for Scott that I don't feel like discussing right now in my fragile state of mind!" Jean said and crossed her arms defensively.

"Right, because you just have everything together." Jubes said unconvinced. "Besides, Scott is probably gonna run off to find Taryn, now that your Ego is Prego." She said antagonistically.

"No, he wouldn't! Scott's being a jerk and not talking to me or being at all supportive, but he would never leave me out to dry like that!" Jean said in utter astonishment that the younger girl would think so lowly of her boyfriend.

"Please, it's all over the internet. When a boy get's a girl knocked up, and they aren't married, they leave the girl to raise the thing alone. If he stays, then he's trapped with just one girl, and boys would do anything to keep the nookie coming." Jubes said with an appraising glance. "Take Logan, for instance, when Rogue's mom started talking about marriage after knowing him for two days, he was out."

"Hey, too far!" Rogue said warningly.

"Sorry, just making a point." Jubes said offhandedly.

"That is not true! Scott is a good person, and whether he knows it or not he'll do the right thing. Besides, Taryn is a nice a girl, underneath the part of her that hates the entire mutant race, and he would never play with her emotions like that." Jean said, getting irritated.

"I don't know, girl, he did it with you, and you guys practically grew up in this place together." Jubes said with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, because we're best friends, and Scott trusts me." Jean said with a hint of anger.

"I'm real convinced. Boys like him, sweet, innocent, you never see it coming." Jubes said. "And parent's love them." she added, knowing Jeans parents adored Scott as the son they never had.

"You know what? I'm done with this; girl time is over for me." Jean said and stood adruptly and stormed out of the room, making sure to slam the door behind her.

"That's how it's done." Jubes said with a triumphant grin.

"How what's done?" Laura asked, all she saw was Jean get mad at Jubilee for how she stated her opinion and leave in a huff.

"Emotional manipulation, little sister, it's how these vultures get you to admit to things you don't want to admit to or do things you don't want to do. You need to watch yourself around these harpies; they'll mess with yer head." Rogue said, glaring at Kitty in particular.

"You love it." Kitty said in response, with a defiant grin.

A/N: Okay, guys and gals, I'm gonna end it there. Mainly because I don't have too much more to add, but partly because I know you've been waiting ever so patiently for an update, which I adore.

First, this mug is almost 4k words, even without my commentary, so I would really like you all to give an honest opinion on how you liked/disliked this chapter, and what, in your opinion, I can do to help this thing move along.

Second, this only has a few more chapters left until it's finished. It will end with the last chapter being about Christmas, and I may or may not have a sequel, it depends on the reviews I get.

I think that's about it, so I'm gonna go update another story, probably Amyro, but I hope to get lots of feedback from you guys. Thanks so much for reading!

-fnk


	15. Chapter 15

Black Velvet

Chapter 15

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: Okay, I know I said I would work on Amyro, I just couldn't help but write this. It'll probably be a short one, seeing how long the last one was, but it's all Romy. So it should make up for the length. We'll see when I'm done writing it. Allons-y! (If you know this, you are awesome.)

Monday, after the boys of the mansion spent the weekend in the mountains training with Logan and Beast…

"Ya'll know where that idiot Swamp Rat is at?" Rogue asked, lingering in the foyer as the group of boys trudged through the front door, following after Logan, looking quite exhausted. They all muttered variations of either 'no' or 'go away'.

"Hey, Chere, ya didn't miss meh, did ya?" Remy asked as he came in after everyone, looking just as worn out as the rest, and dragging his duffel bag and camping gear behind him.

"A bit." Rogue said with a shrug, taking Remy by surprise as she took his bag and gear from him and hoisted it up on her shoulders.

"Aw, Cher, Ah can take my own stuff, give it back would ya?" Remy said as he went to take his stuff back from Rogue, but she took a step back from him.

"You look beat, Ah got it." Rogue said and turned to walk out of the foyer and up the steps towards the sleeping quarters. Remy hesitated and looked at Kurt, who had been watching, but he just gave a clueless shrug and a warning glare before Remy followed Rogue up the staircase.

'Nice rear bumper,' he commended inside his head with a smirk.

Once they got to Remy's room Rogue shoved her way through his door, and tossed his stuff down by the dresser, taking a look around. Remy followed her into the room, a bit nervous as she started looking around the room in mild interest.

"Ya okay, Cher?" He asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, why ya askin'?" Rogue said and went to his window to look at the view.

"Ya seem unusually friendly towards ol' Remy. Ya sick or somethin'?" Remy asked, studying her from the doorway.

"We ain't friends, Swamp Rat?" Rogue asked, not looking at him, opting to stare out the window instead.

"Well, ya never made the indication that we were, so I just assumed… ya know…" Remy said and let his voice trail off as Rogue gave no indication she had heard him.

"Ah was talkin' with the girls the other day, about you, among other things, and it got me thinkin'." Rogue said and she fiddled with the gloves on her hands.

"Got ya thinkin' about what, Cher?" Remy asked as he stepped inside the room and closed the door, hoping he wasn't crossing a line with said action, as Rogue was known to be quite finicky when she felt cornered.

"Well, Jubilee was sayin' stuff about boys doin' anything to get tail, and then a few weeks ago Ah overheard Lance and Pietro talkin', when Ah was hangin' with Wanda, and they were sayin' stuff about you only tryin' to be all smooth and charmin' with meh because you think it would be a challenge to get the 'untouchable'. 'Course Ah didn't pay 'em no mind until Jubes said what she said and then all of a sudden Ah start thinkin' the only reason ya been bein' so chivalrous towards meh is so ya can… ya know-" Rogue was saying, gazing out the window as her voice got faster and higher as she spoke, before Remy cut her off, not really understanding the things she was spouting, but sensing her distress none the less.

"Whoa, slow down, Cher, Ah can see ya be talkin' 'bout me and those Brotherhood losers, but ya got meh confused." Remy said as he rushed over to where she was standing by the window, and turned her around to face him. "Now, ya say the Maximoff boy and Lancey the Pansy was sayin' stuff 'bout me only persuin' ya because it was like some sorta challenge, right?" Remy asked, and continued at Rogue's affirmative nod. "Well, Ah'll be straight with ya, that's how it was in the beginning," Remy said, but continued quickly when Rogue was about to speak. "That's how it was when Ah invited ya to Louisiana," "Ya kidnapped meh, ya nut job!" "Tomato, tomato, Cher, it's all in the past, but Ah obviously feel differently. Otherwise, why would Ah stick around with someone who so obviously hates meh?" Remy said as he bent his knees a bit to be eye level with Rogue.

"Ah don't believe a word ya just said right there." Rogue said with a glare and crossed arms.

"Well, Cher, it's kinda like Santa Clause, ya either believe or ya don't, but Ah ain't one to waste time tryin' to make someone who doesn't believe in such things believe." Remy said, affronted and stood up straight to stare out the window moodily.

"Ah also don't hate ya." Rogue said, a little quieter this time.

"Really?" Remy said, genuinely surprised. Rogue just shrugged in response.

"Well, Ah don't really like you sometimes, like when you go in my room without permission, and that time you snuck into mah bathroom to brush yer teeth while Ah was takin' a shower, and then ya were judgin' meh on mah taste in music. That other time when you stole my shampoo and body wash so you could smell me all day, that was borderline creepy." Rogue said, not meeting Remy's eyes. "The chivalry thing is nice, though, even if Ah complain about it. And don't get used to my sappiness, it won't last, Ah'm going to the Professor later tonight, Ah think somethin's wrong with meh." Rogue said looking at her sneakers.

"Yah be adorable, Cher." Remy said, smiling like a kid who just got a puppy for Christmas.

"No, Ah ain't, if ya say it again Ah'll hurt ya." Rogue said, a bit miffed by Remy paying her such an un-Remy-like compliment. Remy just continued to smile like an idiot. "Stop smiling, you look like an idiot."

"Ya really think Ah'm a, what'd ya call meh? 'A real stand up guy'?" Remy asked, the question had been running around in his head since she had paid the compliment.

"Sometimes, when you're not tryin' to bed down with every skirt you see." Rogue said, now feeling more like herself again.

"Want in on a little insecurity of mine? Since you been all sappy and understanding and not at all like ya snappy, witty, and full of snark self." Remy said as he closed his window, walked to the edge of his bed and plopped down, leaning his back and head against the wall, and watched as Rogue came over to sit beside him, with a comfortable space between them.

"Sure, why not, but it isn't my fault I'm being so unlike myself, the psyches in my head are all going crazy, I think it has something to do with all the lovey dovey stuff going around the mansion, especially with Jean being knocked up, and all. Crazy." Rogue said rolling her eyes as the people in her head, namely the girls, started squealing in excitement at the mention of the Jean/Scott spawn-to-be.

"Ah was wondering about that. She came out, did she?" Remy asked, and continued at Rogues nod. "Well, as Ah was gonna say, there's a reason for why Ah woo all the ladies like Ah do," Remy started, but stopped when Rogue opened her mouth to say something smart, but closed it and gestured for him to continue. "Well, you know Ah'm an empath right? Well, when Ah'm out there with them women, doing what Ah do ta make 'em feel special, payin' compliments and stuff, Ah feel what they feel, all happy and warm inside, like mah life isn't completely worthless or that in the morning Ah won't be there when they wake up. Making them feel special in turn makes me feel special." Remy finished uncertainly, and looked sideways to see what Rogues reaction would be. She just looked at him for a minute before speaking.

"Have ya had a lot of women?" Rogue asked curiously.

"That's all you got from everything Ah just said?" Remy asked, a bit taken aback.

"Well, all the other stuff Ah knew already, Ah been inside yer head on a number of occasions, Swamp Rat, Ah know a lot about you." Rogue said, waiting for her answer.

"Well, ta answer ya question, _Chere,_ Ah have had plenty of women, either in mah bed or theirs, but Ah find that they usually prefer theirs." Remy said, a bit harsher than he had meant to be. "Ya don't get it Chere, when ya raised like Ah was ya got a certain outlook on life, like what your number of birds is, and where Ah lived the women were very sophisticated, and by the time Ah was fifteen the spoken for ones were slipping hotel room keys in my hands, and diamonds in mah pockets. Ah can't tell you how much dough Ah would have raked in for mah old man had Ah not given them their stuff back, but Ah eventually learned to just accept it. These women, they smelled real nice, Chere, and Ah had never known before Ah was inducted into the Guild that there were ladies out there that actually took care of themselves." Remy said, now standing, as he looked around the room frantically, recalling several occasions when he had been kidnapped from his own bedroom by older women. "But since Ah been here, Ah'm slowly learnin' that ladies, like Mrs. Munroe and Jean, can clean up nice and fine, and not want attention from a man. It's kinda nice to see." Remy said, now out of steam.

"You wanna get a cup of Joe?" Rogue asked after a minute, not really knowing what else to say.

"Yeah, sure, Chere." Remy said after he assessed that he wasn't too tired to get some coffee.

"Ah'm going to assume that it doesn't need to be said that what has conspired here stays, right?" Rogue said as she stood and walked to the door, which Remy opened for her.

"What happens in Remy's room stays in Remy's room." Remy said as they left the room and closed the door.

A/N: Okay, I know that one probably sucked, but it was rushed for the most part, and you can thank Dark Lord of the X-Men for that, I totally got yelled at for not updating. It was fun.

I recently (last weekend) watched the entire Saw series, minus 6 because I don't have it, and am now going to write more scandals for the next chapter. Weird how Saw inspires me to write Jott, but old time romance songs inspires me to write Romy. I think there's something wrong with me. Oh well.

-fnk


	16. Chapter 16

Black Velvet

Chapter 16

Disclaimer: See chapter one…

A/N: Last time R&R had one of their little 'heart to heart's, but the atmosphere for this one will be nothing like the last one. Like I said, Saw makes me write Jott, and they are not really in a good position right now, so let's see where this chapter takes us.

Same day…

"Scott, we need to talk." Jean said as she found Scott on his way to his bedroom.

"Can we do this later, Jean? I really want to go take a shower and sleep for the next twenty four hours." Scott said as he attempted to wave his girlfriend off as he walked in his room with his camping gear and ruk sack and slammed his door on her. Bobby and Jubilee, who had been walking quietly behind them, looked at Jean with stunned faces, who looked at them with an incredulous look, and barged into Scotts room and slammed the door closed, louder than he had. Bobby and Jubes just looked at each other as the yelling started, shocked that the perfectly happy couple was having so many arguments lately.

"What's going on with them?" Bobby asked, pointing at the door.

"You don't know? Oh, man, you gotta here this." Jubes said and pulled Bobby into his room, a few doors down.

Back with Scott and Jean…

"Scott, what is your problem?" Jean asked, putting her hands on her hips and an angry look on her face.

"I don't have a problem, Jean, not according to you anyway." Scott said as he roughly started taking his clothes off for a shower.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jean asked, confused, as she folded her arms.

"According to you, there is nothing wrong with two college students, who are living in someone else's house, not married and bringing a child into a world where it will be hated and ridiculed. Isn't that it?" Scott said and threw his shoes at the wall next to Jean, now standing in his pants and socks, facing Jean with an angry look on his face.

"I didn't ask for this, Scott, and, if I'm not mistaken, you made the same conscious decision as I did to drop your pants." Jean said, now with hurt mixed with her anger. "Besides, how would you know how I feel if we haven't had a proper conversation about this since we found out?"

"For all I know this is exactly what you wanted." Scott said and bent down to take off his socks, but when he did Jean rushed forward and shoved him roughly to the floor, now looking completely enraged.

"Well, you know what, Scott? If you don't like the situation you're in, why don't you do something to change it?" Jean said, putting her hands on her hips, and glaring down at Scott, who was glaring back up at her from the floor.

"Why don't you fix it yourself." Scott said and straightened his glasses to see out of them better.

"What are you talking about?" Jean asked, thoroughly confused.

"Get rid of it." Scott said simply as he stood back up to face Jean.

"What?" Jean said, shocked, as she took a step back from him.

"You heard me, get rid of it. You know as well as I do that even if we were married, living on our own, we still wouldn't be able to take care of it, so just nip it in the bud and be done with it." Scott said, poker straight.

"Why are you being like this? We can't do that, I thought you said you would support me no matter what, why are saying all this?" Jean asked, a lump rising in her throat.

"That was when I was sure you weren't pregnant, what was I supposed to say?" Scott asked, as if it should be obvious.

"We have to take responsibility for our actions, isn't that what you said?" Jean asked, recovering from her shock.

"This is the twenty first century, Jean, we have options." Scott said quietly, as if he were talking to a child.

"That is not an option!" Jean yelled, and shoved at Scott again, though it didn't do much, as he had been ready for it.

"There are no other options." Scott said calmly.

"You know what? This is my baby, and I'll do whatever I want with it, so you can do whatever _you_ want, I don't care, but when your hand isn't good enough for you, don't come crawling." Jean said and threw the door open before she turned back to him, "Another thing, I know for sure that you have enough unwanted pictures of me to keep you busy until your forearm gives out, so have a merry freakin' Christmas." She said and slammed the door on him, leaving him in a stupor.

A/N: I know this one's short, but I couldn't think of too much to follow this up with. So, for the next one, I think we'll visit the boys' vacation with Logan and Beast, or we could have a get together of all the students who get to talk about everyone and experience Remy's amazing cooking. Let me know which.

Also, on the note of the above, I feel compelled to say that I am neither against nor for abortion, every woman has her own mind and can decide these such things for herself, and my heart goes out to those who have ever had to make such a decision that Jean is having to make now.

-fnk


End file.
